Fed: Mixed domestic reaction to WTO agreement

AAP General News (Australia)
12-19-2005
Fed: Mixed domestic reaction to WTO agreement

By Darrin Barnett

CANBERRA, Dec 19 AAP - Australian farmers, miners and business groups are split over
a world trade agreement that would see rich nations eliminate their agricultural export
subsidies by 2013.

Under the agreement brokered at the World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting in
Hong Kong at the weekend, key negotiating nations have agreed to phase out export subsidies
within seven years.

The news is better for the world's 50 least-developed countries, which will get access
for their farm products into rich nations by 2008.

The biggest outstanding issues include agriculture market access and the use of tariffs
to protect so-called sensitive products.

Farmers and miners cautiously welcomed the agreement, while the Australian Chamber
of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) and the dairy industry criticised it for not going far
enough.

The National Farmers Federation (NFF) said while the phase out of export subsidies
could end one of the worst forms of trade distortion, the issue of market access remained
a problem.

"Despite the best efforts of Trade Minister Mark Vaile and his negotiators, not to
mention the efforts of a strong Australian agricultural lobby in Hong Kong, the European
Union and G10 are still failing to adequately address this fundamental issue of improved
market access," NFF president Peter Corish said.

"We urge the European Union and other protectionist countries to show the necessary
ambition and political leadership to reform their agricultural industries."

Australia's mining industry praised the deal, saying it would make a modest contribution
to market conditions for the nation's $70 billion minerals export trade.

The Minerals Council of Australia said while critics would judge the Hong Kong outcome
harshly, the deal paved the way for concluding the Doha round of trade negotiations next
year.

"That an outcome was reached at all is quite remarkable, even more so when the trigger
to the deal was progress in the highly sensitive areas of agriculture reform, trade in
services, and reductions in barriers to trade in industrial goods, which includes minerals,"

council chief executive Mitch Hooke said.

However, ACCI chief executive Peter Hendy said the outcomes of the meeting highlighted
the increasingly dysfunctional nature of the WTO.

"The WTO negotiations are like a swing in a children's playground," he said.

"In some respects they look like they are going forward, in some respects they look
like they are going backwards, but in reality they are pretty much stationary."

Mr Hendy said the great failure of the talks was the inability to make any progress
on agricultural market access and reducing trade barriers in the areas of manufacturing
and services.

"Further, there appears to be an increasing protectionist sentiment amongst the developing
countries in the WTO that goes against the whole philosophy of the organisation," he said.

Australian Dairy Council chairman Allan Burgess also described the meeting as disappointing.

"As they stand, the proposals offer little, if anything, for Australian dairy farmers," he said.

"While there will be gains for dairy through the elimination of export subsidies, there
has been no progress at all in market access - the area of most importance to dairy."

Environmentalists were also underwhelmed, with the group Make Poverty History saying
the WTO agreement failed the world's poor.

"The pledge does nothing to assist poor countries now, which still face continuing
dumping in their markets of agricultural products produced by rich countries," it said.

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KEYWORD: WTO AUST NIGHTLEAD

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