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The European Union (EU) has maintained its markets largely open, except for textile and agriculture, said the latest World Trade Organization (WTO) reporton the EU trade policy issued in Geneva on Friday.
The report, which examined the EU trade policy over the past two years, pointed out that the EU market for non-agricultural products continued to be largely open, except for textiles.
According to its WTO commitments, the EU has only lifted its restriction on 20 percent of products restricted in 1990, leaving the elimination of the remaining 80 percent of restricted imports for the final stage at the end of 2004.
On agriculture, the WTO report said that EU support to producers has declined to 97.9 billion euros (about 98 billion US dollars) in 2000 from 10.76 billion euros (about 10.78 billion dollars) in 1999.
However, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development believed that the decline of EU support for agriculture was mainly due to world market prices rising faster than domestic prices and currency movement, rather than significant changes in policy.
The WTO report said the EU didn't seize the opportunity to reform its quota on milk or sugar regimes, but extended it.
Trade Policy Reviews are an exercise, mandated in the WTO agreements, in which member countries' trade and related policies are examined and evaluated at regular intervals.
The WTO held the trade policy review meeting on EU from Wednesday to Friday. The WTO's full membership in the Trade PolicyReview Body discussed the above-mentioned WTO report as well as the policy statement by the EU.
Roderick Abbott, Deputy Director-General of the Directorate General for Trade, European Commission, made the comment on the WTO report on Trade Policy Review on the EU "pretty positive".
(Xinhua News Agecny July 27, 2002)
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