The new head of the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) top negotiating body, the General Council, on Thursday warned that there was little chance of meeting a March 31 deadline on guidelines for crucial agriculture negotiations.
The first outline for the farming talks’ so-called ‘modalities’ agreement has come under fire from all sides in recent weeks, either for being too ambitious or for not going far enough.
”Agriculture is in a very messy state of affairs,” Carlos Perez de Castillo, who is also the ambassador for Uruguay, told journalists. ”Although every one is working very hard and saying that we will meet the deadlines of March, I think there are great chances that we will not, and, of course, we have to be prepared for that,” he added.
Perez de Castillo replaced Canadian ambassador Sergio Marchi last month at the head of the General Council, which groups national delegates from the 145 member trade body.
The chairman of the agriculture negotiating committee, Stuart Harbinson, is meant to try to draw up a new text by March 31 to try to overcome the disagreements on the targets and guidelines for farm talks.
”Will the second draft be conducive to a better dialogue, I am not too sure. What I can see is that at the moment there are some countries that… maybe don’t even have a mandate to get involved in negotiations,” Perez de Castillo added.
The March deadline was set by trade ministers at their meeting in Doha in November 2001 as a first stage to reaching a deal on liberalising the trade in agriculture in 2004. – Sapa-AFP