quote:

EU Ready to End Farm Export Aid, Says U.S. Must Match (Update2)

May 10 (Bloomberg) -- The European Union sought to kick- start global trade talks by offering to end subsidies supporting its agricultural commodity exports as long as nations including the U.S. promise to cut farm grants and lower import tariffs.

The EU, which spent 3.4 billion euros ($4 billion) to compensate exporters of beef, wheat or milk powder for lower world prices in 2002, previously said it was only willing to cancel subsidies for products ``of interest'' to developing countries at World Trade Organization talks. Poorer nations refused to compile such a list.

``With today's move, we show we are ready to go the extra mile to ensure we conclude 50 percent of the round by 2004,'' EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy told a news conference in Brussels. ``The purpose of this initiative is to speed up negotiations in the WTO.''

The EU's refusal until now to eliminate farm export subsidies has been a major obstacle to reaching a wider agreement that would boost the international economy by $500 billion a year. Trade negotiators at the WTO are aiming to develop an outline for a future agreement by the end of July.

Such an agreement is seen by many, including U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, as the key to unlocking the current round of trade liberalization discussions. The round was supposed to have been completed by the end of 2004.

`Absolutely the Key'

``Agriculture is absolutely the key and we will have to commit to eliminating export subsidies to succeed,'' Zoellick said in February.

The EU spends 43 billion euros a year on its farm policy, nearly half of its entire annual budget. The largest proportion of this by far goes to France, which has resisted efforts to pare agricultural spending.

Lamy said today's offer, set out in a joint letter with EU Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler, must be matched by concessions from other WTO members. These should include U.S. shipments of surpluses as food aid, boosting domestic prices, and cuts to U.S. export credits, which let buyers defer payments with preferential financing and undercut foreign competition, he said.

The U.S., ``to help the EU along,'' is prepared to eliminate the export subsidy element of credits and ``discipline food aid,'' Zoellick said in February.

The 25-nation EU also wants trade partners including India and Canada to trim tariffs on food imports. It is demanding better access to Brazil's industrial and food markets.

Not `Unilateral'

``What is definitely not on the cards is, for example, a unilateral elimination of EU export subsidies in wheat while the U.S. continues food-aid shipments in direct relation to its needs for surplus disposal,'' Fischler told journalists in Killarney, Ireland.

Trade ministers from more than 30 nations will gather in Paris this week in an effort to make progress after talks collapsed in Cancun, Mexico, in September. Poor nations, led by Brazil, China and India, triggered the breakdown by rejecting plans for new rules on investment and competition before the EU and U.S. live up to pledges to cut farm spending made in 2001.

``The EU has made its move and it's a matter now for the other negotiating parties to respond,'' said Joe Walsh, Ireland's agriculture minister. ``We know how difficult it is to get a deal, particularly with the U.S. elections as they will have their minds on other matters.''

U.S. Farm Budget

U.S. farm spending will also come under domestic pressure, Lamy said. Under a 2002 bill, the U.S. agriculture budget is expected to surge by $73.5 billion, or 78 percent over its 10- year life, compared with the previous program dating from 1996.

``The Americans have to put on the table a serious reform of their domestic support and I think they are prepared to move in that direction, if only because of very heavy costs to the U.S. budget,'' Lamy said.

Developing nations last week rejected a proposal written by the U.S. and EU for a ``blended'' formula to trim border tariffs on farm products. They offered no alternative. The move threatens plans to craft a draft global trade accord by the end of July. The group said a plan to slash import tariffs applied to farm products ranging from oranges to cotton would let the EU and U.S. retain high, protective border duties on some commodities.

``Although we express a preference for the blended formula, we're not closed to amendments and the flexibility to address the concerns that some countries have,'' Lamy said. ``I'm eagerly waiting for any alternative to be put on the table.''

Singaporean Trade Minister George Yeo, who led the WTO's agriculture negotiations in Seattle in 1999, Doha in 2001 and Cancun in 2003, said the EU's proposal ``will make it easier to put WTO negotiations back on track this summer.''
bron

quote:

A French diplomatic source said Paris was studying Lamy's move, but noted that President Jacques Chirac had said the EU could eliminate export subsidies, providing others did the same.
bron

quote:

Op maandag 10 mei 2004 22:40 schreef cyber_rebel het volgende:
Wat krijgt dit topic weinig aandacht

quote:

Op maandag 10 mei 2004 22:44 schreef digitaLL het volgende:

[..]

Eerst zien dan geloven. Het is waarschijnlijk weer een dooie mus die we voorgeschoteld krijgen

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Op maandag 10 mei 2004 22:49 schreef cyber_rebel het volgende:

[..]

Je zou best gelijk kunnen hebben, hoop het niet . Maar dan nog kan er nog best gediscussieerd over worden. Of zijn er soms geen mensen die het een slechte stap van de eu vinden?

quote:

Ja, er zijn wel een aantal mensen die voor de subsidies zijn, maar dit is nog een ander aspect. Het gaat in deze beslissing alleen over de subsidies op export. De subsidies op de domestic markt blijven gewoon intact evenals de beschermende maatregelen (grotendeels?).

quote:

De afbraak van deze tarieven/subsidies zal in latere ontmoetingen moeten gebeuren, maar dat zal zeker voor veel weerstand zorgen van bepaalde lidstaten. *kuch* Frankrijk *kuch*. Maar ja, zo'n grote stap als alles afschaffen is denk ik niet reeel in een keer. Dan maar in stapjes

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Op dinsdag 11 mei 2004 11:29 schreef cyber_rebel het volgende:
[..]

Ik bedoelde eigenlijk of er fokkers hier waren die het er niet mee eens zijn om een discussie los te weken. Maar wat is de reden dat zij voor zijn dan? Belangen zeker?

quote:

Boeren huiveren voor EU-plannen - 11/05/2004

De Europese Unie is bereid om alle steun te schrappen die boeren ontvangen voor hun uitvoer, als andere landen hetzelfde doen. ,,De gevolgen zijn moeilijk in te schatten'', zegt onafhankelijk landbouwexpert Luc Busschaert, ,,maar een groot verlies van hun inkomen is dan nauwelijks te ontwijken.''

De landen van de Wereldhandelsorganisatie onderhandelen al maandenlang over de verdere liberalisering van de wereldhandel, na de mislukking van de top in Cancun vorig jaar. Europa is nu bereid om een geste te doen om de gesprekken weer vlot te trekken.

Europees commissaris voor Handel Pascal Lamy en zijn collega voor Landbouw Franz Fischler zeggen opnieuw bereid te zijn om alle exportsubsidies te schrappen, die het Europese boeren mogelijk maakt te concurreren met veel goedkopere boeren elders in de wereld. In ruil moeten ook de andere landen hun exportsubsidies laten vallen. De 90 armste landen zouden wel een ruimere toegang moet krijgen tot de rijke landen, zonder dat ze zelf iets in de plaats moeten doen.

Of de Europese toezeggingen voldoende zullen zijn, valt af te wachten. Vraag is vooral of de VS toegevingen willen doen, nu de presidentsverkiezingen eraan zitten te komen. Onafhankelijk landbouwexpert Luc Busschaert vreest alvast voor de gevolgen. ,,Wat dit tot gevolg zal hebben voor de bietentelers, graanboeren of melkveehouders in de Benelux, valt op dit ogenblik moeilijk in te schatten, maar een groot verlies van hun inkomen is dan nauwelijks te ontwijken.

De ministers van Handel komen deze week in Parijs bijeen om de verdere onderhandelingen voor te bereiden. (WWI)

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Op dinsdag 11 mei 2004 14:42 schreef zakjapannertje het volgende:
ja, de Europese boeren...

quote:

Op maandag 10 mei 2004 22:40 schreef cyber_rebel het volgende:
Wat krijgt dit topic weinig aandacht

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Op dinsdag 11 mei 2004 16:00 schreef KareldeQ het volgende:
De meeste Nederlandse agrariers zouden juist blij zijn als alle subsidies, en niet alleen exportsubsidies afgeschaft worden. Immers het gaat in Nederland maar om een heel klein bedrag, als je het afzet tegenover de totale opbrengst.
Maar ze moeten wel altijd dat gezeur aanhoren.
Verder kunnen Nederlandse agrariers zo efficient produceren, dat ze de concurrentie goed aankunnen.
Op de winstgevende agrarische "takken" zit overigens helemaal geen subsidie (tuinbouw, bloemen, intensieve veehouderij)

quote:

Op dinsdag 11 mei 2004 17:25 schreef Num het volgende:
Als de VS ook hun uitbundige subsidies stopzetten dan is dit een erg goede stap voorwaards voor de wereld. Ik vraag me alleen af wat voor effecten dit voor Nederland heeft. Indirect werkt een aanzienlijk deel van de Nederlandse bevolking nog voor de agrarische sector. We mogen hopen dat de gevolgen daarvan gering zullen zijn.

quote:

Op dinsdag 11 mei 2004 17:25 schreef Num het volgende:
Als de VS ook hun uitbundige subsidies stopzetten dan is dit een erg goede stap voorwaards voor de wereld. Ik vraag me alleen af wat voor effecten dit voor Nederland heeft. Indirect werkt een aanzienlijk deel van de Nederlandse bevolking nog voor de agrarische sector. We mogen hopen dat de gevolgen daarvan gering zullen zijn.

quote:

Op dinsdag 11 mei 2004 20:34 schreef DiGuru het volgende:
Daarnaast moet er ook geld worden uitgegeven aan de scholing van de arme landen. Een flink deel daarvan is op dit moment nu eenmaal voor hun voortbestaan afhankelijk van ontwikkelingssteun. Ze moeten dus leren, dat het een goede (en lucratieve) zaak is hun eigen eten te verbouwen en niet alleen maar datgene dat ze ook kunnen exporteren.

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Op dinsdag 11 mei 2004 18:56 schreef Kaalhei het volgende:
Er werkt relatief en absoluut juist een zeer klein gedeelte van de NLse bevolking in de landbouw, circa 2-4%

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Op dinsdag 11 mei 2004 20:46 schreef cyber_rebel het volgende:

[..]

Dat weten ze ook nog wel, ze zijn niet achterlijk. Zonder de landbouwsubsidies kunnen ze nou tenminste op een gezonde normale manier eten verbouwen en verhandelen. Waardoor de welvaart van degenen die het nodig hebben toeneemt ipv dat van degenen die het al hebben (wat meestal met ontwikkelingshulp gebeurt). En dit heeft dan hopelijk weer goede gevolgen voor de scholing en welvaart van het land .

quote:

Op dinsdag 11 mei 2004 20:58 schreef DiGuru het volgende:

[..]

De meeste mensen hebben daar geen TV en zo, dus het is helemaal niet zo makkelijk om ze goed voor te lichten. Als ze al in een land wonen waar de regering dat belangrijk vind. Geld uit export vinden die regeringen meestal wel belangrijk. Maar dan nog is het helemaal niet makkelijk om de bevolking te laten weten wat ze moeten doen.

Hoe weet bijvoorbeeld de gemiddelde bewoner in Nigeria dat die exportrestricties verdwenen zijn en er volgend jaar geen ontwikkelingssteun meer komt? En wat hij er aan moet doen om volgend jaar te eten te hebben?

Dat het voor al die arme mensen een goede zaak is hoeft geen betoog, we moeten ze dat echter wel leren.

quote:

zou dat zonde zijn voor het landschap en land (cultuur enzo).

quote:

Een ander argument is dat wij niet afhankelijk moeten zijn van voedsel van buiten Europa. Als er een wereldoorlog zou uitbreken of er schaarste zou ontstaan op de wereldvoedselmarkt, dan zouden we in problemen kunnen komen.

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Op dinsdag 11 mei 2004 23:22 schreef pesci het volgende:
beste nieuws van het afgelopen jaar, misschien wel van deze eeuw.

ed: als dit doorgaat, zal ik misschien zelfs mn avatar wijzigen...:+

quote:

Op dinsdag 11 mei 2004 18:56 schreef Kaalhei het volgende:

[..]

Er werkt relatief en absoluut juist een zeer klein gedeelte van de NLse bevolking in de landbouw, circa 2-4%

quote:

Op dinsdag 11 mei 2004 17:13 schreef Rechtse_Mensen het volgende:

[..]

Wij zien deze meeste Nederlandse agrariers dan ook regelmatig met hun tractoren het Binnenhof blokkeren om te pleiten voor afschaffing van deze subsidies.

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Op woensdag 12 mei 2004 12:43 schreef freako het volgende:

[..]

Wel maakt de landbouw ongeveer 20% van de totale uitvoerwaarde uit.

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Op woensdag 12 mei 2004 13:06 schreef accelerator het volgende:

[..]

Dat geloof ik niet. Heb je een bron?

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Op woensdag 12 mei 2004 13:06 schreef accelerator het volgende:

[..]

Dat geloof ik niet. Heb je een bron?

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Op woensdag 12 mei 2004 13:44 schreef KareldeQ het volgende:

[..]

dat bijna alle grote voedingconcerns, zoals Campina, Friesche Vlag, Cosun, suikerunie, Dumeco cooperaties zijn, dus eigendom van de leden(=boeren) zijn.

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Op woensdag 12 mei 2004 13:52 schreef freako het volgende:

[..]

Cosun=Suikerunie. .

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Op woensdag 12 mei 2004 13:53 schreef Steijn het volgende:

[..]

Is dat CSM?

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Op dinsdag 11 mei 2004 23:10 schreef accelerator het volgende:
Je vraagt je af waarom Frankrijk zo voor die subsidies is. Het is immers nadelig voor Frankrijk zelf.
Franse belastingbetalers betalen immers:
- ook mee aan die subsidies voor die achterlijke boeren.
- teveel voor hun voedsel

Een rem op de welvaart

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Op woensdag 12 mei 2004 13:31 schreef freako het volgende:

[..]

http://www.minlnv.nl/cgi-(...)2002/inff2002_02.htm

quote:

Edit: als je boeren achterlijk gaat noemen dan zegt dat volgens mij meer over jezelf.

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Op woensdag 12 mei 2004 19:04 schreef accelerator het volgende:

[..]

Ongelooflijk. Ben bang dat het waar is. Wat er volgens mij ook mee te maken heeft is is dat we veel onbewerkte landbouw producten importeren, bewerken en weer verder exporteren.

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Op donderdag 13 mei 2004 12:55 schreef accelerator het volgende:
Maar op die bloemen en planten zit geen subsidie.

quote:

World trade ministers meeting in Paris
May 14, 2004, 06:27

The world's trade ministers are meeting in Paris, France, under the auspices of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Developement (OECD). Top of their agenda is to re-start the stalled world trade talks. Developing countries want their industrialised counterparts to eliminate market-distorting agricultural subsidies for fair global trade. The Paris meeting is of particular interest in light of the European Union's recent offer to cut all export subsidies conditionally.

It is not an official World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting, but it is regarded as another attempt to kick-start the stalled trade talks. Last year's high-level ministerial meeting of the WTO in Cancun, Mexico, ended without any real outcome. Developing and industrialised countries were at loggerheads on what issues should be prioritised.

Rashid Kaukab, the director of the Trade and Development Unit at the South Centre in Switzerland, says: "Since many of the OECD members are also members of the WTO, on the sidelines of the OECD meeting, there will be a meeting of about 30 ministers, some are not OECD members but are WTO members and they will be meeting to talk about the WTO and the Doha agenda."

The South Centre is an inter-governmental organisation that supports developing countries during negotiations at the WTO. At the Doha round in Qatar three years ago, agriculture was identified as key to the developmental needs of poorer countries. Developing countries want industrialised nations like the European Union, the US, Canada and Japan to drop their protective farming subsidies and to end their unfair market dominance.

EU offers to cut subsidies
The European Union has offered to cut all its subsidies on condition that the US and other northern countries do the same. Kaukab, nevertheless, questions the viability of this offer when a consensus is needed to clinch the deal.

bi]"How real is this offer - because there is quite an interesting use of language for example, it mentions things like if others do the same. We don't know the reaction of the US and Japan. It is not only subsidies but it is also linked to the progress on some issues in other negotiating areas and of course we don't know what is going to happen in those areas. There are quite a few grey areas and in the absence of clarity on that, it is not absolutely clear that this is what the European Commission is going to do," Kaukab says.[/b]

In an SABC TV interview, Iqbal Sharma, the chief director for Bilateral Programmes at the department of trade and industry, says the European Union's subsidy offer should be read in the context of its 10 new member countries.

"Although the 10 accession countries are all at very low levels of development, one could call them developing countries and they previously would have shared the concerns of the developing world. That has shifted, their future now lies with the EU and they'll vote with that block. And that block's voice has been strengthened by another 10," Sharma explains.

IMF addresses issue of agricultural trade
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has tried to illustrate why agricultural trade is crucial for developing countries. It says 96% of the world's farmers live in developing countries. Farming subsidies cost them $20 billion a year directly and up to $100 billion indirectly.

Sharma says developing countries are caught in the middle of a protectionist game, especially between the US and the European Union. 'In the multilateral arena, subsidies on the US side and the EU side are basically a cat and mouse game. And either side is waiting for one to blink. In the meantime the developing world is suffering."

At last year's failed Cancun ministerial meeting, South Africa, Brazil and India led the Group of 20 major developing countries in opposing an agricultural proposal by the European Union and the US. At the current Paris meeting, Robert Zoellick, an American trade representative, has been quoted as saying that the negotiations are moving closer towards a package that will make deep cuts in other trade-distorting subsidies. He has also urged the so-called G-20 countries to make some concessions so that a compromise can be reached.

Meanwhile, the trade and industry department says that because of the sensitivity of the Paris talks, its negotiators will only speak to the local media when they get home next week.
bron

quote:

EU-landen willen zachtere hervorming suikerteelt
BRUSSEL - De meeste Europese landen zien in dat de steun aan de suikerboeren hervormd moet worden, maar verschillen van mening hoe dat moet gebeuren. Dat concluceerde minister Veerman van Landbouw, die maandag voorzitter was van een EU-vergadering met zijn collega's. Veel landen vinden de voorstellen van de Europese Commissie, het dagelijks EU-bestuur, te ver gaan.

De Commissie wil de gegarandeerde suikerprijs met een derde drukken en wil haast maken met de hervormingen. Veel landen willen een zachtere aanpak, of willen eerst de uitspraak van het panel (een soort rechtbank) van de Wereldhandelsorganisatie over de kwestie afwachten, zo bleek maandag volgens diplomaten. Enkele landen, waaronder Duitsland en Groot-Brittannië, steunden de hervormingen echter volop. Zweden vindt ze niet eens ver genoeg gaan.

quote:

161 tt-TV1 161 ma 19 jul 23:23:03
buitenland ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

HERVORMING SUIKERBELEID NIET VOOR 2005
­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­
De hervorming van het Europese
suikerbeleid zal wellicht nog niet voor
volgend jaar zijn. Tijdens een eerste
debat hebben de meeste lidstaten zich
verzet tegen die timing.

Europees Commissaris voor Landbouw
Franz Fischler wil enkele hervormingen
doorvoeren in het suikerbeleid. Zo wil
hij de prijs in de winkel naar beneden
halen en de exportsubsidies afschaffen.

Voor ons land nam minister van Landbouw
Sabine Laruelle een kritisch standpunt
in. Ze vindt het huidige voorstel te
verregaand en wil meer compensaties
voor de getrofen landbouwers. Laruelle
wil ook aandacht voor het gebruik van
suikerbieten als biobrandstof.

quote:

Op dinsdag 20 juli 2004 00:20 schreef zakjapannertje het volgende:

[..]

http://www.telegraaf.nl/b(...)ing_suikerteelt.html
[..]

helaas niet onverwacht, met de boeren moet een fatsoenlijke regeling getroffen worden en zo snel als mogelijk moeten de gewone landbouwsubsidies drastisch teruggedrongen worden,

quote:

Op dinsdag 11 mei 2004 20:50 schreef Num het volgende:

[..]

Ik had het dan ook over indirect. Direct zijn er inderdaad maar een klein aantal boeren. Maar de hele industrie is een stuk groter. Denk aan zuivelfabrieken, suikerfabrieken, stalinrichters, administratiekantoren, een compleet ministerie, transportondernemingen, door overheid gesponsorde milieugroeperingen enz. enz. enz.

quote:

EU puts final touches to WTO talks stance

26 July 2004

European Union (EU) foreign ministers met Monday to finalize their negotiating position at crunch World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks which open in Geneva this week.

Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot said the EU has to take a firm and united stand at the WTO talks starting Tuesday, and downplayed tensions notably over farm subsidies, where France does not want to give any more ground.

"I think we will get a good mandate for the Commission and we have see to it that all member states of course are on the same line," said, referring to the European Commission which will represent the EU in Geneva.

He added that he had "high hopes" all EU states would agree on agricultural subsidies.

The WTO negotiations starting Tuesday, the first since the breakdown of talks in Cancun in Mexico last September, is seen as crucial ahead of changes of administration in both Europe and the United States later this year.

Failure to reach a deal in the so-called Doha round of talks could lead to a stalemate in the talks that could last for years, WTO director-general Supachai Panitchpakdi has warned.

The EU will be represented in Geneva by Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, one of the two French commissioners.

The Commission, the EU's executive arm, welcomed a new draft compromise as "a basis for further work" when the head of the WTO's general council, Japanese ambassador Shotaro Oshima, presented it in mid-July.

But France disagrees with the commission on the issue of farm subsidies. France has complained that the Oshima compromise "is deeply unbalanced to the disadvantage of the EU."

The Commission points out that the latest WTO plan makes room, for example, for market access for certain sensitive products for developed countries. It also takes up the demand by Brussels for equivalent treatment for export subsidies, which are largely used by the EU, and other mechanisms of support such as food aid, which the US commonly uses.

Responding to the concerns of Raffarin and France's powerful farming lobby, European Commission head Romano Prodi said France was also mistaken about the negotiating timetable because the talks next week are aimed at defining a framework for more conclusive talks and are not the conclusions themselves, which will depend on the balance of compromises to come.

French opposition to the EU making concessions on agriculture in WTO talks and the strife that causes in the EU are not new and were already present during the last so-called Uruguay round of multilateral negotiations.

The Oshima plan calls for an end to subsidies to farm exports but does not call for parallel action by the chief exporters, among them the United States.

...

quote:

The text released by chief negotiator Shotaro Oshima on Friday notably advocated talks on the elimination of export subsidies in agriculture, a key demand of developing countries that the EU and US had resisted until they recently eased their positions.

Oshima's proposals also covered farm export credits, cuts in tariff barriers, a reduced agenda for non-agricultural talks, and some exemptions for the world's poorest countries.

quote:

Concessions by U.S. and EU revive trade talks

GENEVA Working into Thursday morning, five key players - including the United States and the European Union - reached an informal agreement on agriculture that has put global trade talks here back on track.
.
With only two days remaining, delegates and officials said that the United States in particular had made significant new concessions on Wednesday night, inspiring cautious optimism that the negotiations will lead to an agreement and advance the Doha round of trade talks for the developing nations.
.
"I think it looks good," said Arancha González, spokeswoman for Pascal Lamy, the top trade official for the European Union.
.
While officials were reluctant to describe details of the discussions or even describe them as an agreement, they did say that the United States seemed willing to put off some of its more contentious demands on agricultural subsidies and, instead, offer to make specific cuts in other areas.
.
Agriculture has been the key to this round of talks, which the World Bank has said could add $3 trillion in new benefits to the global marketplace. But attempts to reach an agreement last year in Cancún, Mexico, ended in failure.
.
Rich countries were accused of catering to their largest commercial farmers, who receive $300 billion in subsidies and support every year, to the detriment of farmers in poor countries who cannot compete against the flood of the subsidized commodities.
.
However, in talks held on Wednesday, the European Union's offer of eliminating all of its export subsidies was matched by an American proposal that was described as a cut in domestic subsidies during the first year of a new trade accord, according to trade officials close to the negotiations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
.
If that holds, the likelihood of an agreement improves, particularly because it could satisfy the poor West African nations that have been demanding that Washington end the heavy subsidization of cotton.
.
Richard Mills, the spokesman for Robert Zoellick, the U.S. trade representative, refused to comment on specific details of the talks but said they were "very useful."
.
"We're being realistic," he said after the talks lasted until nearly 2 a.m. on Thursday. "We're not pessimistic, and we're not optimistic."
.
Australia, Brazil and India were the other three countries meeting with the United States and the European Union in a group known as the Five Interested Parties, who together represent the key factions that must agree if the entire 147-member World Trade Organization is to reach an accord this week.
.
Now, top officials at the WTO here must assemble the compromises suggested by this group and a handful of other blocs representing the richest and the poorest farmers of the world and publish a new text of an accord. Officials were expecting that text late Thursday afternoon.
.
While most delegates met behind closed doors, several African officials held a news briefing on Wednesday and singled out the United States as a barrier to a new trade accord because of its cotton subsidies.
.
"Thousands and thousands of small farmers are being destroyed, their families going hungry because of the unfair subsidies of American cotton," said Ousmane Ngom, Senegal's minister of trade and a representative of one of the four African nations that have pressed for emergency relief from what they call unfair trading practices on cotton.
.
For its part, the United States has offered some development assistance from existing aid programs for the African nations. But it has been reluctant to single out cotton for deeper subsidy cuts than other basic commodity programs, which include corn, wheat, soybeans and rice, to avoid an unsettling precedent.
.
The African ministers agreed to put cotton back into the overall agriculture talks but called the press conference to warn they had reached their "bottom line" and were waiting for a response from Zoellick and the American delegation.
.
Later on Wednesday night, at least 27 countries registered their complaints that the group of five countries negotiating behind closed doors was being accorded too great a role in the talks. China, Malaysia, Chile and Japan were among the countries voicing concern.
.
China and Chile are powerful members of the Group of 20 developing nations that was formed in Cancún last year to push the wealthy nations to cut their agricultural supports. Japan, which puts a 490 percent tariff on rice, is an outspoken member of the Group of 10 wealthy countries that also includes Norway and Switzerland. They have asked for continued protection on what they call sensitive products, a proposition that has been criticized by developing nations.
.
Phil Bloomer, the director of Oxfam International's Make Trade Fair Campaign, which has targeted European and American farm subsidies, said the United States had to make a new, serious concession immediately.
.
"The European Union has said it will eliminate export subsidies and give an end date," Bloomer said.
.
"The West African nations made the concession of putting cotton inside agricultural talks. Now it's up to the United States to make a similar concession."
.
The New York Times

quote:

Op donderdag 29 juli 2004 17:57 schreef DeGroeneRidder het volgende:
Ik voel het belachelijke verworven-rechten-argument al komen... eindelijk stelt men het belang van enkele % van de bevolking en hun drukkingsgroepen (die, hoewel ze zich graag als solidair en en soms ook links profileren, enkel solidair zijn met hun landgenoten) niet meer boven dat van van honderden miljoenen mensen.

quote:

WTO Takes Step Toward Accord Cutting Duties, Farm Aid (Update4)

Aug. 1 (Bloomberg) -- World Trade Organization negotiators agreed on the outline of an accord cutting farm aid and tariffs on manufactured goods, taking a step toward a 147-nation pact the World Bank says may add $500 billion to the global economy.

Representatives of WTO nations rescued trade talks that collapsed last September in Cancun, Mexico, overcoming differences between rich and poor countries on agriculture and pledging to strike a final accord that lowers border barriers and enables exporters to sell their goods in more markets.

``The WTO has reached a monumental agreement on agriculture,'' Judith Lee, an international trade lawyer with Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP in Washington said in an interview after five days of WTO talks in Geneva. ``Even though it may not be as comprehensive as some developing countries would like, it represents the most significant progress on the most intractable issue that the organization has dealt with.''

Companies such as Unilever and Microsoft Corp. are pushing for a broad accord that the World Bank says may pull 140 million people out of poverty and add $350 billion to developing countries' annual incomes by 2015. Obstacles remain: With U.S. elections and a change of European Union administration likely to steer the world's two biggest trading blocs' attention away from trade, a global pact may not be possible for years.

New Faces

Three men who are central to the talks -- WTO Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi, EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick -- may all be out of office by the time negotiations resume in earnest. Lamy's mandate runs out in November and Supachai's term ends next September. Zoellick will lose his job if U.S. President George W. Bush isn't re-elected.

Negotiators still have a lot of work to do before a broad agreement is possible, Lamy told reporters, adding that ``we've broadly covered 50 percent of the road'' to a final pact.

Indian Trade Minister Kamal Nath said the WTO may be able to cobble together a global agreement by 2006, though to do so ``it's got to move at the same pace as in the last six months,'' he said. ``We must keep the momentum.''

Supachai told journalists after the accord was secured that WTO members had been urged ``to do the best they can do so the final agreement can be reached some time in the foreseeable future.'' He declined to elaborate.

Protectionism

Industrialized nations, including the U.S., EU members and Japan, agreed to scale back protection for their farmers in exchange for boosting trading opportunities for products ranging from computers to cars. Agriculture was central to the talks because about 70 percent of the world's poor live in rural areas and earn their income from farming, according to the World Bank.

The $184 billion in subsidies and other forms of aid the U.S., EU and Japan give each year to support their cotton, rice, sugar, beef, dairy and wheat farmers have been the biggest obstacles to reaching a broad WTO agreement to dismantle trade barriers. Support in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries totals $330 billion a year, of which $250 billion goes directly to farmers.

Governments agreed to fix a date for ending subsidies for agricultural exports that distort world market prices, cap spending on farmers -- including an immediate cut once the full agreement becomes effective -- and outlaw short-term commodity export-credit programs used by the U.S. The agreement was welcomed by Auckland- based Fonterra Cooperative Group Ltd., the world's biggest dairy exporter.

Breakthrough

``This is the breakthrough we have been looking for,'' said Henry van der Heyden, chairman of Auckland-based Fonterra, which is owned by the 13,000 farmers that are its suppliers. ``Export subsidies are the single most damaging and trade-distorting weapon in the protectionist arsenal.''

Participants at the WTO talks also pledged to work out ways to simplify customs red tape and trim import duties for agricultural and industrial products on a sliding scale that would reduce the highest border duties the most. The accord calls on rich nations to consider scrapping all tariffs and quotas on imports of manufactured goods from the world's poorest nations.

The agreement on a framework for negotiations ``is a vote of confidence in the WTO process after the failure of talks in Cancun last year,'' said Patricia Hewitt, Britain's Trade and Industry Secretary, in a statement. Success would be ``an important prize for the global economy,'' she said.

After a year of pressure from African cotton producers including Chad, Benin and Mali, the U.S. agreed to scale back its more than $3 billion in payments to 35,000 American cotton farmers. The WTO ruled last month that U.S. cotton aid is illegal, supporting a complaint by Brazil.

Cotton

``For the first time, we are seeing success in dealing with the product which is very important for least-developed countries, which is cotton,'' Supachai said. ``We have seen real commitment, courageous commitment, from the developed countries on agreeing'' to the text on cotton.

The blueprint answers few questions about so-called sensitive products -- or agricultural goods that countries protect most strongly with high-tariff levels -- such as the 490 percent levy that Japan imposes on imported rice to protect its farmers from foreign competition. The framework leaves room for smaller reductions on sensitive products, and the WTO will decide in coming months how to treat these crops.

``There will be tremendous momentum to tackle other issues now,'' Lee said, adding that the ability of trade negotiators to find common ground ``shows people that the WTO isn't a paper tiger because everything else until now has depended on agriculture.''

Executives from Microsoft, Nestle SA, Caterpillar Inc., DaimlerChrysler AG and other companies have pressed government negotiators to agree on reductions in farm aid that they say will boost sales to the developing world and cut the prices consumers pay for their goods. An accord will help poor nations to increase production and exports, spurring economic growth, they said.

Successful Round

``A successful round is good for both developing and industrialized countries,'' said Carlos Braga, a senior trade adviser at the World Bank in Geneva. Companies in rich economies ``will see new markets growing in the developing world if a significant liberalization package'' wins approval, he added.

The last world trade pact -- signed under the WTO's predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs & Trade -- was in April 1994 during the Uruguay round. That trade round took more than seven years, twice the original schedule, to yield an accord covering products from toothbrushes and pleasure boats to banking, AIDS treatments and the genes of wild rice.

Since then, an attempt to start a new round of talks derailed in Seattle in December 1999 after ministers from developing countries such as Colombia and Venezuela were barred from final bargaining. They threatened to walk out and, with many other disputes still pending, WTO leaders called it quits.

Cancun Lesson

Negotiations in Cancun aimed at reaching a framework deal crumbled 10 months ago after 20 poor nations including China, Nigeria and Brazil refused to discuss trimming duties on manufactured goods or barriers to commercial services until the U.S., EU and Japan agreed to slash farm subsidies.

``People learned a lesson from Cancun, that they cannot wait until the final moment to thrash out a solution,'' Supachai said.

``We have laid out a map for the road ahead,'' Zoellick told reporters after the agreement, which he described as ``a milestone.''

The WTO's credibility would have been ``severely undermined'' had the efforts in Switzerland failed, said David Woods, managing director of Geneva-based consultancy World Trade Agenda. Supachai said the blueprint underscores that a multilateral system works.

``It has been only 10 months after Cancun, but we have come back and now achieved what we failed to do in Cancun,'' he said. ``Today, multilateralism has made a minor triumph. The major triumph will be the day that we successfully complete the Doha development agenda.''

Sanctions

Countries have turned to the nine-year-old WTO to resolve more than 300 disputes involving issues ranging from U.S. steel import duties and its use of cotton subsidies and credits to EU sugar subsidies and the ownership of Havana Club-label rum. The U.S., Argentina and Canada have also complained to the WTO about the EU's restrictions on gene-modified foods.

A 2002 ruling by the WTO that an American export tax subsidy was illegal cleared the way for the EU to impose the first-ever sanctions on the U.S. Those sanctions, which may reach $4 billion annually, began in March with a 5 percent duty on products such as jewelry, textiles and wood and will remain in place until U.S. lawmakers revise the subsidy.

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Op maandag 2 augustus 2004 00:32 schreef UnderWorld_ het volgende:

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Het is een akkoord dat moet leiden tot een uiteindelijk treaty in 2006.

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Op woensdag 4 augustus 2004 09:51 schreef more het volgende:
Nadeel is wel dat er alleen naar de subsidie wordt gekeken, en ook niet naar welzijn, bestrijdingsmiddelen, milieuwetgeving etc, want hier mogen de agrariers bijna niks meer en worden daardoor op hoge kosten gejaagd. Terwijl in de rest van Europa veel meer mag en daarbuiten nog alles kan.
Zo gebruiken spaanse tuinders 20 x zoveel bestrijdingsmiddelen als Nederlandse, en wordt er telkens weer teveel gif gevonden in buitenlandse produkten.
En omdat het onmogelijk is om alles te testen, kun je nagaan wat voor troep je allemaal binnenkrijgt.

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2006 beginnen en 2011 moet het afgerond zijn.

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Indian Trade Minister Kamal Nath said the WTO may be able to cobble together a global agreement by 2006, though to do so ``it's got to move at the same pace as in the last six months,'' he said. ``We must keep the momentum.''

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Op woensdag 4 augustus 2004 13:36 schreef UnderWorld_ het volgende:

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Voor geimporteerde producten gelden dezelfde eisen als eigen productie volgens mij. En je kan ook niet alle eigen productie testen, dus dat is een non argument.
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En je kan ook niet alle eigen productie testen, dus dat is een non argument.

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Het kan al in 2006, als ze opschieten.

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Op woensdag 12 mei 2004 12:43 schreef freako het volgende:
Wel maakt de landbouw ongeveer 20% van de totale uitvoerwaarde uit.

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Op woensdag 12 mei 2004 09:58 schreef Rechtse_Mensen het volgende:

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Overdrijf het niet, het is maar een beginnetje. Het gaat hier alleen om de exportsusbsidies, de subsidies waarmee onze boeren nu hun vlees onder de kostprijs in Afrika kunnen dumpen. Binnenlandse subsidies (die ervoor zorgen dat onze boeren op hun eigen markt onder de kostprijs kunnen aanbieden) vallen niet onder het voorstel. Ook de handelsbarrieres blijven bestaan.

Het is dus eigenlijk maar een klein stapje in de richting van een vrije wereldmarkt voor voedsel.