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Hong Kong: G-20 Demand WTO Removal of Distortions in Agricultural Trade Rules

Posted on: Tuesday, 13 December 2005, 09:00 CST

Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency)

Hong Kong, 13 December: The G-20 members of the World Trade Organization issued a joint declaration here Tuesday [13 December], appealing to remove the distortions in international agricultural trade rules.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorin, who presided over the declaration issuance meeting, said agriculture is the key topics that the G-20 will attach great importance to at the Sixth WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong.

Amorin said the largest structural distortion in international trade occurs in agriculture through the combination of high tariffs, domestic support and export subsidies that protect inefficient farmers in developed countries.

Removing these anti-development measures is a core objective of the Doha Round as it can help in reclaiming the development dimension of the DDA (Doha Development Agenda) and the meaningful integration of developing countries into the global economy.

The plight of the African cotton producing countries and of other cotton producers in the developing world is the evidence of this kind of distortions, said the official.

At the heart of all these proposals put forward by the joint declaration is the imperative to ensure substantial reductions in trade-distorting domestic support through both reductions and disciplines.

In addition, the proposals will also seek the elimination of all forms of export subsidies by 2010.

The group's proposals also call for substantial improvements in market access, while at the same time securing the necessary policy space through special and differential treatment for developing countries.

China's Ministry of Commerce announced earlier that China upholds the cancellation of all forms of export subsidies of the developed WTO members by 2010.

Established in 2003, the G-20 constitutes, a wide and balanced geographical representation, accounts for almost 60 per cent of the world's population and 26 per cent of the world's agricultural exports.

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

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