The Cairns Group of agricultural exporting nations warned on Wednesday of “dangerous” consequences if major trading blocs do not agree to significant cuts in tariffs and farm subsidies by an April deadline in world trade talks.
The 18-nation group, which includes Australia, Canada, Brazil and smaller developing nations, said while some progress had been made in negotiations in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on lowering global trade barriers, efforts to improve market access for farm products “continues to lag behind”.
“We need urgently to agree on approaches to tariffs and sensitive products that break down the barriers which have for so long hampered the full development of agricultural trade,” the group said in a statement.
The 149 members of the WTO will meet in Geneva next month with an April 30 deadline to flesh out a loose agreement that emerged from talks in December in Hong Kong — all part of the so-called Doha Round of WTO negotiations.
The Cairns Group said there was still a long way to go in addressing a host of issues, notably tariff barriers to trade in key farm goods and subsidies paid to farmers in some major developed nations, including the United States and European Union.
“It would be dangerous to assume that the significant moves that are required by major members can be left until the eleventh hour. They cannot,” the group said.
“We need urgently to see movement, and we will not be pressured into accepting a modest outcome at the last minute,” it said.
“Our farmers are expecting relief from protection and subsidies in this round -‒ not ineffective half-measures.”
The target of next month’s meeting is to thrash out what are known in WTO jargon as “full modalities” — formulas and other guidelines for reducing trade barriers.
Governments have been unable to agree on the mathematics for the highly technical formulas, although WTO officials have said the gaps are getting smaller.
The Cairns Group said that for the negotiations to be a success, “deep tariff cuts must be agreed in order to provide real commercial opportunities and cuts to subsidies must reduce current spending”.
“We call again for the necessary political leadership to unlock the current stalemate,” the nations said.
The group, created in 1986 in the Australian city of Cairns, includes Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Paraguay, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Uruguay. ‒ AFP