|
US WTO farm trade goals unrealistic: Japan
GENEVA (September 25 2002) : Japan, accused by Washington and major farm exporting countries of dragging its feet over trade reform, on Tuesday hit back at its critics for setting "unrealistic" goals for the Geneva talks.
"Presenting ambitious or unrealistic figures may sometimes be regarded as detrimental to a compromise," Japan's senior official at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) agriculture negotiations told journalists.
"It is a bit of a chilling signal," added Hidenori Murakami, director-general for international affairs at the Agriculture Ministry.
The United States and the Cairns Group of agriculture exporting states, including Australia and Brazil, have called for steep cuts in farm tariffs as well as export subsidies.
They want WTO members to agree on a tariff ceiling of 25 percent for farm goods imported by developed countries, a move that could hit hard at Japan's highly protected rice market.
Murakami acknowledged that exporters had expressed "irritation" during the talks that Japan and the European Union, also a target for criticism, had not yet put forward alternative numbers on which to negotiate.
But for Japan, questions such as so-called non-trade issues like food security and rural development needed adding to the equation, but here the exporters' group had not shown the same enthusiasm, he said.
"We feel strongly that (WTO) members are not addressing this (non-trade issues) properly," he said.
Murakami also took aim at China, which is taking part in its first global trade round since joining the WTO last December.
China has called for an end to all domestic farm support programmes other than those that the trade body considers not to have any impact on trade. But new WTO members would be exempted.
"It is a proposal that asks everything from other member states without offering anything. It is a bit puzzling," he said.
Talks on agriculture are part of global negotiations to further liberalise international trade, which WTO countries agreed to launch at a ministerial meeting in Doha, Qatar, last November, and conclude by 2005.
The 144 member states face a deadline of March 2003 for reaching broad accord on how the negotiations should be conducted and what should be included.
Courtesy Business Recorder
|
Pakissan.com;
|
