archives: WTO Info

US, EU Schedule talks on agriculture
International Trade Daily
Thursday, July 17, 2003
ISSN 1533-1350
Lead Report

Agriculture
U.S., EU Schedule Talks on Agriculture,
Europe Looking for Concessions From U.S.

GENEVA--Officials from the United States and the European Union will meet in Geneva July 17 for bilateral discussions which may give an initial indication of how far the two sides are prepared to move to narrow their differences on agriculture before the World Trade Organization's important ministerial conference in Cancun, Mexico, next September.

The meeting will present the two sides their first chance in Geneva to directly exchange views on the EU's recently-adopted reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy and what it may mean for the WTO's stalled negotiations on the further liberalization of farm trade.

The EU delegation will be headed by Mary Minch, director for international affairs at the European Commission's agriculture directorate, while the U.S. side is expected to be headed by Allen Johnson, the Office of the United States Trade Representative's chief negotiator on agriculture trade.

The two officials are in Geneva to attend the latest meeting of the WTO's negotiating group on agriculture, which will wrap up on July 18. The meeting is the last regularly scheduled gathering for the group before Cancun, although Stuart Harbinson, the chairman of the group, said another meeting might be scheduled for August.

EU Looking for U.S. Concession

The EU for its part will be looking for some signal from Washington that it is prepared to make new concessions on reducing trade-distorting domestic support and accepting new WTO disciplines on export credits and food aid in response to the CAP reforms. The reforms will de-link most EU farm subsidy programs from production, thus giving Brussels more leeway to negotiate deeper cuts in subsidies which fall under the WTO's "amber" and "blue" boxes of trade-distorting support.

"We're obviously getting close to Cancun," noted one senior EU official speaking on condition of anonymity. "It's important that all WTO members, including the major players, weigh up the prospects now."

"We're not a one-man band," said another EU official, highlighting the need for the United States and other major players to add their own concessions to the pot. "We're all in this together to make Cancun a success."

WTO members are hoping to reach a deal in Cancun on negotiating modalities, which were originally due to be finalized by the end of March. The modalities could spell out how far governments are prepared to go in cutting tariffs on agricultural goods and reducing farm subsidies, including export subsidies.

The United States and other trading partners counter that it is still unclear how the EU reforms will impact the Doha Round negotiations, particularly in regards to possible concessions on market access (i.e. tariffs), and that Brussels needs to "translate" the reforms into new WTO negotiating proposals.

Testing EU's Limits

Chile asked the EU during an informal meeting of the negotiating group on agriculture July 16 whether the reforms were the limit in terms of how far the EU could go in the WTO negotiations or whether further concessions were possible. The EU did not reply, according to officials who attended the meeting.

The EU said last December it was willing to accept a 36 percent average cut in bound tariffs on agricultural imports and a minimum 15 percent cut on each tariff line as part of a new WTO agriculture deal, the same figures agreed to in the previous Uruguay Round trade talks. EU officials privately admit that any further concessions on tariff cuts will be difficult, as the high internal prices for EU farm goods under the CAP are dependent on effective tariff barriers.

U.S. officials for their part told the negotiating group July 16 that the United States can accept references in Harbinson's draft text on negotiating modalities citing the need for WTO disciplines on export credits and food aid, although they did not indicate whether annexes to the Harbinson draft spelling out possible disciplines were palatable to Washington.

---

wto news | wto info | www.agp.org (archives) | www.all4all.org