SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - Top officials from some of the world's biggest farm-goods exporters criticized the European Union and Japan for not doing enough to promote agriculture trade at a meeting of the Cairns Group in Bolivia on Saturday.
The head of the 18-country Cairns Group, Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile, said there would not be progress on the Doha Round of trade talks launched by the World Trade Organization last year unless "there was an acceptable result for agriculture."
"We're here because we believe in our vision that there must be an end to discrimination against agriculture in world trade," Vaile said. "We have not yet seen a serious commitment from the EU or Japan."
Cairns members, who account for one third of the world's farm goods sales, have three main goals: improving access to agricultural markets, eliminating export subsidies and drastically reducing state farm aid.
Cairns comprises Australia, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, New Zealand, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Fiji, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia, Paraguay, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Uruguay.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, attending the meeting as a guest, backed an end to agriculture export subsidies. He said tariffs should be slashed and domestic farm aid cut to 5 percent of total agricultural output.
The proposals are not new but still raised some eyebrows among delegates, given President Bush's decision to sign into law a controversial new farm budget that raises subsidies for some crops and dairy products by 67 percent.
"The reason we came to this meeting of the Cairns Group is because we wanted to meet with other agriculture exporters to pressure other nations to consider our proposals, especially those who haven't taken any action in that respect," Zoellick told reporters.
Like Vaile, Zoellick took aim at the EU and Japan.
"To give you a clue as to whom I'm talking about, the capital of one is Tokyo and the other is Brussels," he said.
ELIMINATE EXPORT SUBSIDIES
The U.S. delegation attended the meetings hoping to make progress in preparation for the next meeting of the Free Trade Area of the Americas to be held in Ecuador in November. The FTAA would establish a free-trade zone throughout the Western hemisphere, excluding only Cuba.
The United States has proposed WTO reforms that would scrap all export subsidies over five years, cut the average allowed farm tariffs from 62 percent to 15 percent and reduce the ceiling on trade-distorting subsidies by over $100 billion.
One of the meeting's main objectives is to set a timeline for reforms Vaile said were necessary for global trade talks to move forward.
"That includes the elimination of export subsidies in three years for developed countries and six years for developing countries, with an average reduction of 50 percent starting on the first day of implementation of the agreement," Vaile said.
Other proposals include new rules for export credits and guarantees, guidelines for food donations and tariff limits.
Vaile said it was time to move forward on proposals made at the Uruguay Round of trade talks, which were the first to include agriculture.
Meetings were scheduled to continue until Monday.
World Trade Organization chief Supachai Panitchpakdi and Sun Zhenyu, China's representative to the WTO, will also take part in the Bolivia meeting.
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