The European Union and the United States must make substantial
concessions in cutting tariffs and subsidies on agricultural
products if the stalemate of the Doha round of multilateral trade
negotiations is to be broken, a senior Chinese expert on the World
Trade Organization (WTO) and multilateral trade told Xinhua on
Thursday.
"Only after the European Union and America budge over
agricultural market access can developing countries be more
flexible in non-agricultural negotiations," said Li Zhongzhou, who
headed the Department of International Trade and Economic Affairs
of the former Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic
Cooperation.
He said that the Doha talks had reached the "eleventh hour" as a
continuous stalemate in the ongoing mini ministerial meeting
convened in Geneva on Wednesday might prolong the negotiations
launched in 2001 for more years.
"If the meeting failed to result in substantial progress, the
chances for WTO members to wrap up the Doha round of talks by the
end of 2006 would be slim," he said.
According to a timetable set by the 150 WTO members, the talks
must be concluded with a wide-ranging free trade agreement by the
end of the year. To meet the deadline, negotiators must reach
agreements on agriculture and non-agricultural market access so
enough time is left for solving other issues.
The end of June is the latest deadline set by WTO members to
reach a precise formulas for cutting subsidies and tariffs. An
April 30 deadline has been missed due to sharp differences between
WTO members.
Calling himself "cautiously optimistic" about the meeting due to
end on July 2, Li warned that any further protraction of the Doha
Talks would impair the world's confidence in multilateral trade
negotiations and would show WTO members that some nations are more
favored than others.
To realize the goal of the Doha Development Agenda to facilitate
the prosperity of developing nations, Li said that developed
countries should make more compromises to meet "the ambitions" of
developing countries.
The Chinese government has been actively supporting the
negotiations and is hoping for a swift agreement.
Sources close to the talks said that major differences among WTO
members mainly focused on agricultural market access, domestic
support and non-agricultural market access as no parties involved
were willing to make the concessions required.
A group of 20 developing nations has urged the European Union to
cut 54 percent of its tariffs on agricultural products and the
United States to slash 75 percent of its agricultural
subsidies.
In response, the European Union only offered a 39 percent
reduction in tariffs while the United States promised a reduction
of 53 percent in subsidies.
Emerging countries like Brazil and India, dissatisfied with such
offers, were reluctant to reduce their tariffs on industrial
products in return.
Li Zhongzhou attributed the impasse to the "ambition" of all
parties involved as the motto "no deal is better than a bad deal"
is prevalent among major WTO members.
Given that the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations
took nearly eight years, he noted that even if no agreements were
inked this year, the Doha talks could hardly be called "a
failure".
"Trade liberalization negotiations tend to take years. The key
is that all parties involved communicate with one another
effectively and make concerted efforts to take negotiations to a
higher level," he said.
(Xinhua News Agency June 30, 2006)
