OTTAWA (Reuters) - Substantial talks to liberalize farm trade will be held up by next year's U.S. presidential election and expansion of the European Union, Canada's ambassador to the World Trade Organization said on Wednesday.
The WTO's Doha round, as the talks are called, aims to remove trade barriers, especially in agriculture. But after ministers from 148 countries failed to agree on U.S. and EU proposals last month in Mexico, few observers now see the round wrapping up by the end of 2004 -- the original deadline.
"Now the real chore is to try to narrow the gap between the EU and the United States ... and the rest of the (WTO) membership," Canada's WTO ambassador Sergio Marchi told Reuters. "Obviously, an election in the United States adds an additional layer of complication and intrigue."
The U.S. election and the addition of 10 new members to the EU next year will "test the leadership and generosity" of those two major economic blocs, Marchi said.
At stake are the huge subsidies rich countries pay their farmers, even as farmers in poor countries -- cotton farmers in Africa or fruit farmers in Latin America -- for example, must struggle to sell into the world's top markets.
A successful end to the Doha round would raise global income by more than $500 billion a year by 2015, the World Bank says.
WTO diplomats next meet in Geneva in two weeks.
"I think most (WTO diplomats) feel that because of the Cancun outcome, that the Doha agenda has been put to a slower track," Marchi added. "I don't see that as fatal."
He called on Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore and Switzerland to take the lead in the Doha talks now by discussing farm production and export subsidies plus market access, specifically for African-produced cotton.
Progress on other trade files, such as the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas covering all but Cuba in the Western Hemisphere, will be stalled until the agriculture logjam is broken, he added.
"The difficulty with FTAA, or the challenge rather, is on agriculture because you've got many Latin countries that have agriculture as their top priority, if not one of their top priorities."
Marchi also said he hoped the pending U.S. Bioterrorism Act, which is set to take effect on Dec. 12, does not hinder trade with Canada. The act is designed to prevent dangerous biological agents from being smuggled into the United States as food imports.
"We are very sensitive to the fact we remain, on the one hand, very vigilant on terrorism but without choking the very lifeblood between our two national economies," he said.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. NoNonsense English offers this material non-commercially for research and educational purposes. I believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, i.e. the media service or newspaper which first published the article online and which is indicated at the top of the article unless otherwise specified.