Stalled WTO talks to resume in March ’04

The stalled talks on agriculture at the World Trade Organization (WTO) will resume in March next year after member-countries expressed their intent to go back to the negotiating table.

The Philippines’ chief agriculture representative Agriculture Assistant Secretary Segfredo R. Serrano said all WTO members, including the Group of 20, are amenable to reopening discussions which reached an impasse in Cancun, Mexico last September.

"The recent special session of the WTO held last week was very encouraging as everybody has expressed interest in resuming negotiations, especially in the area of agriculture," Serrano said.

Efforts of the WTO to come up with a new trade agreement by Jan. 1, 2005 failed as developing countries opposed further moves by rich countries to further liberalize trade without promising to open up their markets.

Poor countries which banded together and formed the G-20 coalition demanded a total phase-out of domestic and export subsidies of rich countries such as the United States and the European Union (EU).

Up until the talks in Cancun, the developing coungries belonging to G-20 and the rich countries failed to come up with a compromise on the issue of subsidies.

Serrano however, noted that going back to the negotiating table does not mean that the G-20 coalition of which the Philippines is a member, is softening its hardline position.

A ministerial communique of the G-20 members will continue to insist on basing negotiations on the Doha Round.

"Any framework in order to be viable, should be consistent with the Doha mandate and lead to the establishment of modalities capable of ensuring that negotiaitons would result in substantial reductions in domestic support, substantial increase in market access, and phase-out of all forms of subsidies," the communique read.

Serrano said EU trade commissioner Pascal Lamy has expressed more willingness to consider the demands of G-20 countries especially in the area of domestic and export subsidies.