‘EU must deliver on market access’
That’s what EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson told the National Press Club in Washington in an address on the world trade talks, which will reach a crucial point at a December meeting in Hong Kong.
Mr Mandelston said industrialised nations will use the big agricultural content of the negotiations both to bind and stimulate current or future reforms of their farm sectors.
“For the EU, we must deliver... on the promise of the July 2004 framework and offer substantial new market access in agriculture, leaving no product sector untouched.
“This means a commitment to lower agricultural tariffs in a way that brings a meaningful real gain in access for exporters in all sectors. My colleague Mariann Fischer Boel and I recognise that the EU has to take the necessary steps on these market access issues.”
Mr Mandleson said the US will have to re-shape the future of its own farm domestic support programmes, delivering on the reform promises made by President George W Bush at the G8 summit.
“All of us together will have to put figures on the reduction of distorting subsidies, as well as the elimination or disciplining of export refunds or other export competition mechanisms,” said Mr Mandelson.
EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel, who is also in Washington for talks with US leaders on the world trade negotiations, said time is short if an ambitious result is to be achieved in Hong Kong.
