WTO subsidy talks at turning point

By SUE EDEN

GENEVA - World Trade Organisation negotiations on agriculture and export subsidies are at a very delicate stage, New Zealand's permanent representative to the WTO, Tim Groser, said yesterday.

Groser told reporters that about three weeks ago, agriculture and trade commissioners of the European Union had made an offer laying down the basis of a deal on agriculture and export subsidies.

The commissioners had said they would agree to limit export subsidies if certain conditions were met.

Groser was speaking after meeting Prime Minister Helen Clark, who was in Geneva to deliver a speech about the social dimension of globalisation at a high-level meeting of the International Labour Organisation.

Clark told reporters that the EU had made a "significant" move in suggesting it was prepared to negotiate an end date for export subsidies.

However, Groser's message to her had been that other countries needed to reciprocate the EU's initiatives.

He told her countries did not want a deal just on agriculture and export subsidies, and other areas of trade could not be nailed down until there was some movement on agriculture.

Clark said the message from the Cancun trade talks had been that without sufficient movement from developed countries, the current WTO round would fail.

"Players are looking for other interests, the United States, to put their cards on the table to say what they're prepared to give and take," she said.

"I think the European Union has moved significantly. But it is talking about parallelism, which means that because it has moved, it expects the United States to move, it expects the G20 group of developing countries to move a bit.

"What the EU is saying is, 'We can't move without you also making some significant moves'."

While the EU may not have taken a position New Zealand was 100 per cent comfortable with, it had nonetheless moved "and others should now also move in parallel with that", she said.

"The developing countries want a successful round. They want the export subsidies of western producers, like the west European farmers and the United States farmers, to go.

"Therefore, if that is genuinely on the table from the EU, and there is reason to believe that it is, then the developing countries need to think about what they can do to make that an attractive offer for the EU."

Clark said the developing countries also faced the challenge of opening up some of their markets.

"There are quite big issues around textiles with countries like India. So market access isn't one way. While the developing countries want access to developed country markets, the same also applies in reverse."

Groser said if there was no political buy-in, then a trade deal would not happen.

He would visit WTO ministers over the next few days to try to create a higher level of understanding about the "real deal" that could be shaping up.

He was worried he was not seeing "pressure" on negotiators: "I am waiting to see people sweat, frankly."

An intensive round of negotiations would resume in Geneva around June 21 or 22, he said.

New Zealand had 40 per cent of world exports of dairy products despite having 2 per cent of world production.

Whatever the result of the negotiations, it would be good for New Zealand as the country had the most to gain.

- NZPA