The push for agricultural reforms at this week's World Trade Organization meetings in Montreal might yet bear fruit.
Sébastien Théberge, communication director for International Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew, told reporters yesterday that "signs of hope," particularly on the agricultural front, had emerged during animated, closed-door deliberations yesterday by WTO representatives from 25 countries, the last major exchanges before a full meeting of the WTO's 146 member nations in Mexico next month.
Much of the buzz stemmed from a European Union suggestion it was prepared to reduce its trade-distorting agricultural subsidies by 60 per cent.
"Some of us felt that wasn't enough," said Canada's agriculture minister, Lyle Vanclief, who nonetheless qualified the meeting as "excellent - the type of discussion we needed to have here."
He said a number of countries floated different ideas yesterday instead of sticking to their initial negotiating position, which served to advance the discussion.
"People around the table today clearly were listening to other people's ideas," Vanclief said. "That is progress."
No formal statement or draft text is expected when the three-day session wraps up today with a press conference featuring Pettigrew, U.S. trade representative Robert Zoellick and European Union trade commissioner Pascal Lamy. "It's not that kind of meeting," Vanclief said. "It's an ideas meeting to move forward into Cancun."
But it won't be "the end of the WTO" if nothing concrete is decided in Cancun, he added.
Richard Mills, a spokesperson for the U.S. delegation, also emphasized that Cancun is "a midpoint in negotiations, not an end point."
Mills said the United States strongly supports agricultural trade reform. That includes eliminating export subsidies and reducing domestic tariffs and subsidies in all countries, "including our own."
WTO members agreed in 2001 to negotiations aimed at substantial improvements in market access, reductions of (with a view to phasing out) export subsidies and substantial reductions in domestic subsidies.
"We want reform to expand market access in a real and ambitious way," Mills said, noting that there are some international markets from which U.S. farmers are blocked and that the United States is outspent "100 to one" by the Europeans on export subsidies.
"We're willing," he said, "to negotiate for the type of global reform necessary to eliminate this."
Earlier yesterday, a coalition of associations, organizations and companies called the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance added its voice to the call for meaningful agricultural reforms on a global scale.
"Our long-term goal is an agricultural trading environment that is free of distortions and unfair trading practices," CAFTA president Ted Menzies said.
"We are hopeful that governments will respond by seriously engaging in negotiations to substantially reduce support and protection around the world."
pdelean@thegazette.canwest.com
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