12-19-2005, 02:13 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>WTO draft sets date to end farm aids </b>
Reuters / Hong Kong
A draft deal put to World Trade Organisation (WTO) states on Sunday set an end date of 2013 for farm export subsidies, extended some help for the WTO's poorest states and offered something to African cotton producers.
Agreement on the plan is seen as vital to WTO hopes for a draft trade treaty early in 2006 which could inject billions of dollars into the global economy and lift millions out of poverty. Leading developing countries gave it a cautious welcome.
<b>"India welcomes this final revised draft. From going round and round about we now seem to be setting course to a development agenda,"</b> said Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath.
The compromise text, proposed after six days and almost as many nights of hard bargaining between rich and poor nations, must be approved by the full 149-state membership gathered for a ministerial conference in Hong Kong.
<b>"We agree to ensure the parallel elimination of all forms of export subsidies and disciplines on all export measures with equivalent effect to be completed by the end of 2013,"</b> the draft declaration said.
An accord on when to end export subsidies would remove one of the major obstacles to progress in the WTO's Doha round of free trade talks, even if the compromise fell short of the 2010 date that major agricultural goods' exporters had been seeking. The draft also proposed eliminating export subsidies on cotton -- a sensitive issue for the United States -- in 2006, and proposed April 30, 2006, as a deadline for reaching a draft pact for the wider Doha trade round.
The Hong Kong ministerial meeting had initially been scheduled to sign off on a Doha draft, but differences were so great between states going into the conference that the WTO opted to lower the bar and seek a more modest pact.
For Least Developed Countries (LDCs), the text offered duty-free and quota-free <b>access on at least 97 percent of all their goods by 2008, falling short of their demand for 99.9 percent.</b>
It left open the possibility of dismantling rich nation cotton subsidies, a key African demand, at a faster pace than would eventually be agreed for all farm goods under a final deal.
<b>But non-governmental organisations, which campaign on behalf of developing countries, were not impressed. </b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Reuters / Hong Kong
A draft deal put to World Trade Organisation (WTO) states on Sunday set an end date of 2013 for farm export subsidies, extended some help for the WTO's poorest states and offered something to African cotton producers.
Agreement on the plan is seen as vital to WTO hopes for a draft trade treaty early in 2006 which could inject billions of dollars into the global economy and lift millions out of poverty. Leading developing countries gave it a cautious welcome.
<b>"India welcomes this final revised draft. From going round and round about we now seem to be setting course to a development agenda,"</b> said Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath.
The compromise text, proposed after six days and almost as many nights of hard bargaining between rich and poor nations, must be approved by the full 149-state membership gathered for a ministerial conference in Hong Kong.
<b>"We agree to ensure the parallel elimination of all forms of export subsidies and disciplines on all export measures with equivalent effect to be completed by the end of 2013,"</b> the draft declaration said.
An accord on when to end export subsidies would remove one of the major obstacles to progress in the WTO's Doha round of free trade talks, even if the compromise fell short of the 2010 date that major agricultural goods' exporters had been seeking. The draft also proposed eliminating export subsidies on cotton -- a sensitive issue for the United States -- in 2006, and proposed April 30, 2006, as a deadline for reaching a draft pact for the wider Doha trade round.
The Hong Kong ministerial meeting had initially been scheduled to sign off on a Doha draft, but differences were so great between states going into the conference that the WTO opted to lower the bar and seek a more modest pact.
For Least Developed Countries (LDCs), the text offered duty-free and quota-free <b>access on at least 97 percent of all their goods by 2008, falling short of their demand for 99.9 percent.</b>
It left open the possibility of dismantling rich nation cotton subsidies, a key African demand, at a faster pace than would eventually be agreed for all farm goods under a final deal.
<b>But non-governmental organisations, which campaign on behalf of developing countries, were not impressed. </b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->