Developing countries have called for „important changes“ to the World Trade Organization’s attempt to relaunch deadlocked global trade talks by an end-July deadline, it emerged Thursday, reports Agence France Presse.
The G-20 group of developing countries said in discussions this week that the draft proposals on agriculture put forward by the WTO’s chief negotiator last Friday favored the demands of wealthy countries. In a statement on behalf of the G-20, Brazil said the document needed „important changes and improvements“ before they could accept it. The statement obtained by AFP said „there is a clear imbalance between certain major points that are guaranteed at the outset for developed countries and other points of fundamental importance for developing countries.“ The G-20 added that the trade-off did not leave a „corresponding level of comfort for us“.
It also criticized the failure to grant special attention to cotton, where African countries and Brazil are at loggerheads with the United States over subsidies that they blame for pricing their cotton out of world markets. Chief agriculture negotiator Tim Groser said he would amend the text before a key meeting of the WTO’s ruling General Council begins on July 27.
Business Line (India) meanwhile writes that there is also a division among developing countries regarding their own treatment. A number of countries, particularly in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific remain strong advocates of special treatment, including exemptions and additional flexibilities for weaker and more vulnerable countries and measures to deal with the erosion of preferences. Countries from Latin America and Asia are [however] afraid that these proposals would create new categories of countries. The latter group also objects to preferences that are given only to selected group of countries.
Dow Jones and The Associate Press further report French Trade Minister Francois Loos added his voice to a growing chorus of criticism of a WTO proposal designed to salvage trade talks Thursday. Loos rejected a draft deal on liberalizing global trade and accused European Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy of straying beyond his negotiating mandate. France has accused Lamy’s office of giving too much away without winning enough firm commitments from other countries to scrap their own export aid such as US export credits. France is calling on other EU countries to reject the draft accord at a meeting of European foreign ministers on Monday.
In a separate piece, Agence France Presse adds the development aid charity Oxfam International on Thursday accused rich countries of undermining global trade talks, as WTO member states came under growing pressure to overcome deadlock by the end of next week. Oxfam said in a report entitled „One Minute to Midnight“ that a draft compromise the WTO presented last Friday neglected key issues for developing countries and was excessively influenced by rich trading powers. The report demanded tougher wording on tariff barriers which might hamper imports from poor countries. It also criticized attention given in the text to European Union and a mainly wealthy group of net farm importers, such as Japan and Switzerland, who are demanding special treatment on some produce to protect their smallholders.