News Release
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Pascal Lamy |
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No. 21/03
March 19, 2003
WTO/AGRICULTURE:
"HARBINSON 2" DOES NOT BRING WTO MEMBERS CLOSER
Yesterday, Stuart
Harbinson, Chair of the WTO agriculture negotiations, tabled a slightly revised
draft for modalities. In a first reaction, EU
Agriculture Commissioner
Franz Fischler and EU
Trade Commissioner
Pascal Lamy said:
"We fully appreciate
Mr. Harbinson’s efforts. But we do not see this draft as bringing the WTO members
closer. Harbinson 2 is largely identical to the first draft. Severe imbalances
remain. We have tabled substantial and ambitious proposals on all items under
the Doha
mandate (domestic support, export support, market access). We have moved our domestic
policies in the right direction and we should continue to do so in the future.
We do hope that realism will also prevail over unrealistic expectations in Geneva.
As Mr. Harbinson himself proposes, technical work on export credits, food aid,
special safeguard for developing countries or non-trade concerns must now continue
to maintain the dynamic process of the negotiations. We also believe that tariff
preferences—crucial to many developing countries—and the rationale of the domestic
support classification (the “boxes”) have to be further examined. The EU remains
fully committed to a substantial outcome of the negotiations on agriculture within
the parameters of the Doha Declaration.
"The draft remains
unbalanced against the weakest of the developing countries and in favor of the
strongest exporters. In this context, a majority in the WTO—74 members—have called
on the Chair to adopt a Uruguay Round type formula for tariff cuts, instead of
the Harbinson formula. We are also surprised to see that the special treatment
for least developed countries, agreed in principle by the UN and the WTO and already
implemented by the EU, is still expressed in terms of an option and not as a binding
commitment.
"We find the draft
unbalanced against those developed countries like the EU that have pursued an
internal reform path and in favor of those who had increased
trade-distorting support.
"We find in particular
that the measures proposed for export competition left too many loopholes open
for export credits and bogus food aid. And last but not least we find that the
draft is not comprehensive as it does not include non-trade concerns or a peace
clause,” Commissioners Fischler and Lamy concluded.
Press Contacts: |
Willy Hélin
202-862-9530
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Wilfried Schneider
202-862-9523
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Maeve O'Beirne
202-862-9549
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