WTO-CANCUN: Developing Countries Unite on Agriculture

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Analysis - by Ramesh Jaura

CANCUN, Sep 10 2003 (IPS) - Developing countries are no longer prepared to succumb to pressures from the economically powerful industrialised nations.

After close consultations, they have tabled a framework proposal that highlights their concerns and makes agriculture the centrepiece of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial conference Sep. 10 to 14 in the Mexican spa resort, Cancun.

The proposal calls for substantial contribution from developed countries.. "Since they are fundamentally accountable for existing distortions in agricultural production and trade, major developed countries bear a special responsibility in this negotiation," it says.

The paper has been worked out by an informal group of 20 (G-20) countries. Egypt, that was not a member, has endorsed it.

The G-20 came into being in Geneva during preparations for the Cancun ministerial meeting.

The group represents a large cross-section of the WTO membership and comprises a considerable share of the world agricultural population, production and trade.

In all 51 percent of the world’s population and 63 percent of all farmers live in the G-20 group of countries that includes India, China, Brazil, Argentina and South Africa.

The group accounts for 20 percent of world agricultural production, 26 percent of total agricultural exports and 17 percent of all imports of agricultural products.

"It is the first time that such a large group of countries has met and achieved an agreement on a concrete issue of common concern," Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim proclaimed proudly to media representatives.

"Our cause is a good one. We have the support not only of people in our countries but also of the world opinion in general," Amorim adds.

Indeed. Oxfam International lost no time in congratulating the group on its resolve to resist any "arm-twisting" by the industrialised nations. It presented CDs with voices of some 3.6 million people around the world asking for fair trade.

In its framework proposal to the WTO ministerial session, the G-20 argues: "In order to translate the Doha Development Agenda into reality, agriculture should be fully incorporated into the rules of the multilateral trading system with a view to eliminating the distortions prevailing in agricultural trade and production."

The G-20 calls for elimination of export subsidies, saying that economic, political, technical and ethical reasons add up to make the continuation of subsidies an aberration.

As to market access, another important prerequisite to removing trade distortions, the G-20 proposes substantial improvement through deeper tariff cuts and elimination of the special safeguard for developed countries.

In an obvious move to allay fears that during negotiations the group may break apart and its members become vulnerable to pressures, Argentina’s deputy foreign minister Martin Redrado and India’s commerce minister Arun Jaitley said in separate statements to media representatives that the group will act in close coordination throughout the ministerial conference.

The G-20 is composed of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, Mexico, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Venezuela.

Other than China, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, India, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru and Venezuela, the G-20 members are also a part of the 17-nation Cairns Group that includes Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand and Uruguay.

Like the G-20, the Cairns group has in a separate move rejected a proposed draft on agriculture tabled by the president of the WTO executive general council, ambassador Carlos Perez del Castillo.

Both the G-20 and Cairns group are of the view that the WTO blueprint does not go far enough to reflect the "level of ambition of the Doha mandate."

Two years ago, 146 members of the WTO committed themselves in Doha, Qatar, to comprehensive negotiations aimed at substantial improvements in market access to developing countries, reduction of export subsidies with a view to phasing out all forms of these, and substantial reduction of supports that distort trade.

"Cancun is not the end of negotiations, but it must be a step forward," Australian trade minister Mark Valle told media representatives Tuesday.

The G-20 wishes to take things forward with its framework proposal. "We have presented a professional and a substantial proposal. Let us discuss it," said Redrado. The G-20 and the Cairns Group reinforce each other, he said, rejecting suggestions that the two might be working at cross-purposes.