Angara renews call for special treatment for developing countries

Agriculture Secretary Edgardo Angara reiterated yesterday his call for a more meaningful special and differential treatment (S&D) for developing countries, as World Trade Organization (WTO0 member-countries return to the negotiating table and start the long process of coming up with a new multilateral free trade agreement.

Angara also revealed that a new office under the Department of Agriculture -- the Trade Remedies Office -- will be created to address complaints involving anti-dumping and implementation of countervailing duties.

He added that the DA is working closely with Congress to ensure that the safeguards law -- which will protect local farmers against import surges -- may be passed soonest.

Following the failure last December in Seattle to agree on a set of parameters to guide the new round of trade talks, WTO member-nations are now discussing less contentious trade issues while putting the more controversial agricultural trade in the last part of the agenda.

With the GATT Uruguay Round agreements covering only up to the year 2004, WTO member-nations have to start reviewing what have been achieved so far, especially in the areas of export subsidies and domestic support reduction. The UR agreement will then be revised, or new areas added to it and a new set of agreements prepared to cover the period after 2004.

Angara noted that despite the stalemate in Seattle, agricultural negotiations shall continue. "Talks are now ongoing in Geneva and you can be assured that throughout these negotiations, we will fight solidly for a more meaningful S&D for developing countries.

Coming into this new round, he said the Philippines is prepared to push hard for four basic goals. These include:

* Elimination of all forms of export subsidies which are trade distorting and stifle competitiveness of developing countries;

* Reduction and elimination of trade-distorting domestic price support programs;

* S&D for maximum flexibility to developing countries, especially in agriculture; and

* Simplification of technical requirements, especially sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) requirements on products exported by developing countries.

The DA chief, who together with then Trade Secretary Jose Pardo, led the Philippine delegation to the WTO ministerial conference in Seattle last December, said these SPS requirements are actually being used as disguised trade barriers.

He cited the case of Australia, which he said has not allowed Philippine fruits to enter its market because of SPS requirements. "Mindful of this, we are in the process of launching informal talks with Australia in preparation to filing a formal complaint with the WTO," Angara said.

Angara also noted that the current S&D provisions under the GATT UR agreement on agriculture need to be fleshed out, strengthened and made more concrete. "With a strengthened S&D, developing countries like the Philippines are given needed flexibility to strengthen its agriculture sector and face the onslaught of global competition," he stressed.

"The fight for S&D is translated very concretely in the time frame for us to reduce our tariffs. Developed countries are given only until this year to implement their tariff reduction schedules while developing countries are allowed until 2004. But our fight for stronger and clearer S&D will continue beyond 2004," he said.