WTO agreement 'modest', says Antigua-Barbuda minister

Tuesday,  December 20, 2005

HONG KONG, China: After six days of intense negotiation, Ministers from the 149 member nations of the World Trade Organization (WTO) reached agreement on a series of narrow but troublesome issues that have blocked a global trade agreement for the last three years. 

“There was some progress in a number of areas,” said Minister of Finance and the Economy and head of the Antigua and Barbuda’s delegation to the talks, Dr Errol Cort. “But the consensus view -- which I share -- is that the overall agreement is not enough to make the meeting a true success. In particular, it falls far short of the ambitious deal that we had all originally hoped to reach in Hong Kong: Agreeing on formulas for cutting farm and industrial tariffs and subsidies,” he said.

“I am particularly disappointed that, at the end of six days of talks, significant obstacles remain in the way of a comprehensive global trade agreement and a lot more work needs to be done in areas of agriculture and market access. At least, wave a proposed date --April 30, 2006 -- as a deadline for reaching a draft for the Doha round,” he added. 

The agreement, which has been endorsed by the United States, the European Union and a coalition of developing nations led by Brazil, calls for: 

• The worldwide end to all agricultural export subsidies by 2013.

• The elimination by industrialized countries of their tariffs and quotas on 97 percent of their import categories for goods coming from the world’s poorest 50 nations.

• The elimination by the end of next year of all cotton export subsidies and a series of moves to help West African cotton-growing nations, whose complaints had led to the collapse of the previous W.T.O. ministerial conference two years ago in Cancun, Mexico.

• Several billion dollars a year in aid from the United States, the European Union and Japan to poor countries to help them expand exports and adjust to rising global competition.

• New rules designed to streamline further negotiations early next year to achieve a global agreement reducing tariffs on manufactured goods and allowing greater international competition in services like banking, insurance, telecommunications and express package delivery. 

• A broad agreement to ban all fishing industry subsidies that lead to overfishing.

“At the outset, we were urged to "act decisively and with real urgency" to create a freer and fairer global trading system,” said Dr. John W. Ashe, Ambassador to the WTO. “But while there are some elements of the agreement that can be viewed as positive, I think that by failing to eliminate all export subsidies by the developed countries we may have missed an opportunity to tackle one of the root causes of poverty in developing countries,” he said.

“We had hoped that this meeting would have paved the way for a global free trade treaty in 2006,” said Dr. Carl Roberts, Deputy Permanent Representative to the WTO. “Instead the WTO will need to hold further talks on issues such as reducing import tariffs on agricultural produce and freeing up trade in industrialized goods after making no headway,” he added.

Taking a more sanguine view, Elliot Paige, Minister Counselor, OECS office –Geneva, said: “This was a modest but not insignificant deal which could be a driving force to make real cuts in agricultural subsidies, and I while the meeting did not make a great deal more progress, it did not end in failure like Cancun and Seattle." 

The Hong Kong document is intended to guide ministers in further negotiations, with the goal of approving a final trade liberalisation deal and completing the current round of negotiations by the end of 2006. 

Cuba and Venezuela expressed reservations about the agreement, objecting to the potential future liberalisation of services industries such as banking, insurance and tourism.

As the meeting was winding down, the magnificent harbourside conference centre where the meeting was held was totally sealed off, with police out in force to prevent more rowdy anti-WTO protests after clashes on Saturday in which 116 people were hurt, according to authorities. 

Police used tear gas, fire hoses and pepper spray Saturday to hold back hundreds of demonstrators led by militant South Korean farmers, some of whom were armed with bamboo sticks and metal bars. More than 1,000 people were detained, according to Hong Kong police. Nearly 200 of them had been released as of late Sunday. The violent scenes were highly unusual for Hong Kong and were not repeated during a protest on the final day that drew 6,000-7,000 people. It was conducted amid a heavy police presence. 

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