archives: WTO InfoUS, EU to propose broad agriculture market access framework in WTO talks
International Trade Daily
Tuesday, August 12, 2003News
Agriculture
U.S., EU to Propose Broad Agriculture Market Access Framework in WTO TalksDES MOINES, Iowa--The United States and the European Union plan to propose to other World Trade Organization member countries later in the week of Aug. 11 a broad framework for improving market access for agricultural products but without specific numerical targets, U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick said Aug. 11.
Zoellick told Iowa farmers that the two sides are continuing to work on a common position for the WTO agriculture negotiations--as promised at the WTO mini-ministerial meeting held in Montreal July 28-30.
He said, however, that a U.S.-EU teleconference call Aug. 9 that lasted seven hours had failed to produce an agreement.
Zoellick said he plans to continue his discussions with his European counterparts by telephone Aug. 12.
"We said we'd try to do it by today [Aug. 11]," he said. "We are going to miss that. We'll now try to do it later in the week."
Two Formulas Blending
Zoellick said that U.S. and EU negotiators were seeking to blend two proposed formulas for reducing tariffs--the Uruguay Round approach, which would require countries to cut import tariffs by a specific percentage, and the "Swiss formula," which would require greater percentage reductions for products with higher duties than for other products.
He said that the United States and the EU were working to combine the two approaches by allowing higher tariffs and expanded tariff-rate quotas "for a limited number of sensitive commodities," and for other products.
Zoellick said he hopes the U.S.-EU agreement will allow countries to "move forward" at the WTO ministerial meeting in Cancun Sept. 10-14. He noted, however, that negotiations on specifics are not likely to take place in Cancun but will be left until later.
"I don't want to suggest this is an easy task," he said. "You've got 146 countries. The differences are very, very sharp."
The current round of WTO negotiations are scheduled to conclude by January 2005.
U.S. Pushing Principles
Zoellick said that the idea would be to "get this [U.S.-supported] principle of harmonization cuts in there, which would be an advance from the Uruguay Round," he said.
He said that the United States is also pressing the EU to accept in principle reducing trade-distorting domestic support by a greater amount than the United States because it currently spends about three times more than the United States does.
Zoellick said that any agreement that is reached in Cancun will not be "anywhere as detailed" as proposals made earlier this year by Stuart Harbinson, chairman of the WTO agriculture committee.
"If we can get some of these principles established at this point [in Cancun]," he said, "then the next time you start to put in numbers. Right now, we're putting in methods and variables. And then, people will start to negotiate numbers."
Zoellick made his comments at a round-table discussion of Iowa farmers organized by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
By Gary G. Yerkey
wto news | wto info | www.agp.org (archives) | www.all4all.org