Malaysia slams EU over free trade talks

Malaysia’s outspoken trade minister today slammed the European Union for stalling progress in global free trade talks and said next week’s WTO summit in Hong Kong will likely be just a shopping trip for delegates.

Rafidah Aziz urged the EU to concede to widespread demands for it to make deeper cuts to farm tariffs beyond the average 46% it offered in October so that the 148-member World Trade Organisation could strike a trade deal.

“Everyone talks about moving forward but you can move an inch or a yard. We want a yard,” she told reporters on the sidelines of a regional business conference here.

“But if the EU doesn’t change its position, then Hong Kong will just be a shopping trip.”

She urged WTO members to be realistic by extending negotiations on farm subsidies until mid-2006 and agree first on certain aspects of a framework for a global treaty in Hong Kong.

Talks ahead of the December 13-18 ministerial meeting have reached an impasse over agriculture, with many negotiators blaming Europe’s unwillingness to further cut farm subsidies and tariffs.

Malaysia has expressed hopes that the issue should not overshadow progress in other areas, such as trade facilitation, services and non-agricultural sectors.

The Hong Kong meeting is supposed to set up a conclusion to the current Doha round of talks, which aims to cut trade barriers across a wide range of sectors and is meant to address the needs of developing countries, for whom agriculture is a particularly sensitive topic.

Agricultural trade, vital to developing countries, has been the main stumbling block that led to the collapse of the WTO summit in Cancun, Mexico in 2003.

Poorer nations want richer countries, particularly the US and those in the 25-nation EU, cut government subsidies of agricultural products and tariffs that block cheaper farm exports from developing countries.

The US has proposed to cut its trade-distorting subsidies by 60% and its tariffs by up to 90%.