South Africa is hoping that rich countries will move away from vague commitments to “precise figures” and deadlines for opening up markets to poorer nations, said its lead negotiator at next week’s WTO talks.
Speaking ahead of the key World Trade Organisation meeting opening in Hong Kong on Tuesday, Xavier Carim also singled out the European Union for criticism, saying its stance on agriculture was holding back progress on a new trade deal.
“The aim is to get some more precision about what the final outcome would be,” Carim, South Africa’s chief director for trade negotiations, said in an interview.
“We would begin to get more precise figures about reduction of tariffs, we would be getting figures about how we would cut domestic support to farmers in the industrial countries, and we would be getting some kind of date for the elimination of export subsidies,” said Carim, who will be heading a 70-strong delegation from South Africa to Hong Kong.
Most countries want export subsidies to end by 2010, but the EU — although it has supported the move in principle — is yet to commit to a date.
Finance chiefs and ministers from 149 countries are hoping to bring to conclusion the Doha Round of trade talks launched in 2001 with the stated goal of opening up global trade to the world’s poorest countries.
Negotiations on that round were supposed to have concluded this year but after talks collapsed in Cancun in 2003, mainly over differences on agriculture, the deadline was pushed back to 2006.
“At the moment it’s the EU’s proposal on the tariff negotiations in agriculture which is holding back progress,” Carim said.
The EU has been under fire from several exporters including Brazil, Australia and the United States who say its offer to cut duties by between 35 and 60% does not go far enough.
“The EU coming in at around 35%… it’s just not in the zone,” said Carim, who noted that the United States was offering a 75% cut.
Africa’s biggest economy, South Africa also views farm subsidies, in particular, in Europe as a hurdle preventing poorer nations from using agriculture to propel their economic development.
Carim noted that agricultural subsidies in rich nations have totalled as much as one billion dollars a day.
“That’s a lot of money, that’s the support that goes to northern farmers, it’s something like five, six times the amount that’s given for aid to sub-Saharan Africa. It’s a massive amount,” he said.
“By removing these subsidies you would be creating a level playing field for trade in agriculture and that would create the basis for many developing countries including countries in Africa to use agricultural exports as a base for their economic development,” Carim said.
Ultimately, Carim believes, it is in everyone’s interests to turn the corner.
“What you are doing by providing these subsidies in a global economy which is increasingly integrated and open… you’re actually holding back the development potential and economic growth potential of the global economy as a whole.
“That money could be much better spent. In the EU… two thirds of the entire budget is on agriculture. If that money was spent elsewhere in more profitable sectors, more dynamic sectors, there’s an economic benefit to their economies… to consumers,” said Carim. – AFP