End of farm export subsidies ‘years away’
But the initial euphoria over the agreement by the 147 member states of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has given way to more realistic assessments of what has actually been achieved and the timeframe for putting it in place.
The next WTO ministerial conference is not scheduled until December 2005 in Hong Kong and yesterday there were suggestions that a deadline for the total elimination of farm export subsidies is years away.
French Agricultural Minister Herve Gaymard predicted that the deadline will be some time around 2015 or 2017, “which will give us time to react.”
Gaymard welcomed the deal to continue negotiations, which collapsed in Cancun, Mexico, nearly a year ago, and the fact that the United States “accepted controls on its agricultural policy it had not accepted before.”
France had found itself isolated among its European Union partners as the sole hold-out at the talks, but Gaymard said his country dropped opposition once the efforts were balanced.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said the WTO deal was basically an agreement to talk in detail about an agreement. It was positive news but people should not get over-excited about it because there is still a long way to go.
Farmers in Australia are worried that a possible loophole in the deal may allow countries to allocate or name products like beef, sugar, rice and dairy as sensitive in regard to their particular country and they may be excluded from any further reforms.
That provision for the self-selection by WTO members of an appropriate number of sensitive products which will then be subject to special treatment as far as tariff protection is concerned would benefit Ireland.
Agriculture and Food Minister Joe Walsh said this country had already indicated that beef and dairy products would have to be treated as sensitive.
The arrangements for sensitive products will ensure the EU domestic market will be adequately protected from imports from third countries and will remain remunerative for Irish and other producers, he said.
Minister Walsh welcomed the draft deal as a most satisfactory result for Irish agriculture and said it copperfastens the benefits to Irish farmers of the recently negotiated reform of the Common Agricultural Policy.
But the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) leader Pat O’Rourke said it would have a negative impact on the economy, where export refunds account for €230 million on an annual basis.
On the other hand, Oxfam said there was little in the deal to guarantee reforms that would help the poorest countries.
On non-agricultural market access, it said the deal was particularly bad and could lead to the destruction of industries in developing country.
Celine Charveriat, Head of Oxfam International’s Geneva office, said the results, three years into negotiations, fall far short of what is needed to reform world trade rules so that they work for the poor.
However, Brazil’s foreign minister Celso Amorim, who led the G20 group of developing countries at the talks, maintained the draft deal was the beginning of the end for farm subsidies.
While there is a lot of talking still to be done, perhaps the main message from Geneva was best summarised by the EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy.
It was a clear signal, he said, that the multilateral trading system is - after a period of doubt - alive and kicking, and can deliver on the needs of all its members, in particular the developing countries.
“I said in Cancun that the WTO was in intensive care. Today I can say that it is not only out of the hospital but well and running.”
