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Report
No.231105 |
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- International - |
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WTO Negotiation Postponed a Deal on Modalities Ministers of the G-6, the group that substantially leads the Doha Development Round of trade negotiations comprised of the United States, the European Union, Brazil, Japan etc., decided before dawn of July 1 that an agreement on modalities in the field of agriculture and other areas would be unreachable at a series of ministers meetings in Geneva at this time. The major reason for the stalled talks was the refusal of agricultural exporting countries such as the United States to give concessions. While the G-6 did agree to postpone the deadline for a deal until the end of July, a view is shared by an increasing number of countries that even that deadline will be extremely difficult to reach. The ministerial consultative group, a gathering of about 30 ministers representing all the coalitions among the membership, that started in the early evening of June 30, deadlocked in their talks aimed at achieving modalities on agriculture and on mining and industrial products, and decided to let the G-6 break the impasse. The deadlock, however, was not broken by the ministers' meeting of the G-6 over that night. Mr. Pascal Lamy, WTO Director-General then called an end to the series of negotiating meetings as he had to conclude that the talks would not be fruitfully continued in the light of wide divergence of opinions. In an effort to explore progress in agricultural negotiation, June 30 afternoon consultations among the G-6 discussed issues of substance such as the sensitive products, which are to be treated differently from general products. Japan and the European Union revealed readiness to present a joint proposal on the treatment of sensitive products as a way of making contribution to the negotiation. However, the gap of opinion with the exporting members remained unclosed on the fundamental point of what is to be used as a basis for expanding low tariff import quotas. Moreover, the United States, albeit having been asked by countries to offer yet deeper cuts in its domestic agricultural subsidies, refused to concede. That was how the negotiation deadlocked on an impasse. Mr. Shoichi Nakagawa, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries held press meetings with Japanese and foreign reporters after a series of WTO negotiation meetings. Japan gives great importance to sensitive products in the agriculture negotiations, for which the market opening should be smaller. Asked to comment about the U.S. criticism which said "the sensitive products are loopholes in the way of liberalization," he rebutted to say "it is written down in the 2004 framework agreement that the market access improvements of the sensitive products 'will be achieved through combinations of tariff quota commitments and tariff reductions.' I would like to tell them they should say things after reading it carefully." Agriculture Minister also criticized the proposals of the United States etc. as unrealistic by pointing out that "the exporting countries are making self-contradictory demands, according to which the burden (of market opening) will be heavier for the sensitive products than for general products." WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy visited Japan on July 5 as part of his tour of major players in search of finding solutions to the deadlocked negotiations and met with Agriculture Minister Shoichi Nakagawa, Foreign Affairs Minister Taro Aso and, Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Toshihiro Nikai. He met with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, the next day. Prime Minister Koizumi emphasized his posture to make efforts for successful negotiation and told Mr. Lamy "Japan will continue to contribute towards achieving an agreement." |
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