Rich and Poor Members Debate Agricultural Issue In Cancun

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, September 13, 2003

Rich and Poor Members Debate Agricultural Issue In Cancun

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Both rich and poor WTO members were still looking for a consensus Friday in order to save the Doha Agenda negotiations, which is on the verge of collapse due to the deep discrepancies on how to slash rich members' huge agricultural subsidies.

After two days of debate, the participants in the 5th Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO), in the Mexican tourist resort of Cancun, said there are signs of flexibility on the part of rich members.

"There are no heart feelings, no shouting, and people are losing their temper on the issue, but now the temperature is kept at a correct level," said Sergio Marchi, a Canadian representative.

All the parties concerned expect the agreements could revive the attempt to obtain an integral pace for global trade by the end of next year. They hope the accord, as the World Bank said, could help the world economy recover and bring millions of people out of poverty.

Yet the dispute on the agricultural subsidies remains an obstacle for success.

The poor members denounced the rich ones for their spending of 300 billion US dollars in subsidies each year to protect their agricultural producers from cheap imports, and to allow them to export their products to regions whose agricultural producers do not count with such support.

The G21 of developing countries including Brazil, India, South Africa and China, insists that it will reject a "bad" agreement. The United States and Europe, who are facing an unprecedented pressure to show flexibility, said they would open their markets to the G21 if it softens its demands.

"We are not certain if they (the G21 countries) have the will to move from the phase of demands to the phase of negotiation," said a US official.

"We have shown signs of our flexibility, and we are fully showing it right now. We are also going to show it in the process, but let me say that without flexibility or efforts from the other party, these negotiations will turn very, very difficult," said Franz Fischler, European Union Agriculture, Rural Development and Fishing Commissioner.

Singapore Trade Minister George Yeo has been appointed as mediator in the agricultural negotiations, and scheduled to present on Friday a draft document that would move arguments dominated by emotional rhetoric into the stage of "serious negotiations."

The WTO event, which was inaugurated on Wednesday, has to reach consensus to comply with the compromises of the Doha Development Agenda, signed in 2001, in order to establish a more fair trade in two years.

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