WTO chair outlines gains in talks on food aid rules

The working paper released by New Zealand ambassador to the WTO Crawford Falconer, who chairs the body's agriculture negotiations, outlined gains made in the area of export competition over the past few months.

It left unanswered how negotiators may deal with several sticky issues, including the treatment of state companies that trade in commodities like wheat, a key issue for Australia and Canada.

Those two countries want the WTO to limit the ability of state trading enterprises to effectively subsidise producers. Other countries want state monopolies to be banned altogether.

In food aid, negotiators are trying to find ways to stop donated foodstuffs being "dumped" in poor economies in a way that destroys markets for local farmers.

Falconer's working paper included clearer language on how to define recipient and donor governments' responsibilities in the distribution of food aid, including efforts to ensure that there are few obstacles to the goods getting to needy people.

Issues yet to be finalised in this area include the tricky question of when governments can sell donated food to raise money for other aid activities.

Agriculture is the main pillar of the WTO's six-year-old drive for a new global free trade pact. Negotiations are also underway on industrial goods and services, though many countries want to see a breakthrough in farming before offering concessions in those areas.

This week the chairman of the manufacturing talks, Canada's WTO ambassador Don Stephenson, said he would delay releasing his latest negotiating text on industrial tariffs because the agriculture talks were taking longer than expected.

Falconer was originally meant to produce a new negotiating text spanning the whole of the agricultural talks -- including subsidies to rich-country farmers -- by mid-November. He is now expected to release that paper in late November or December.

Many of the toughest issues still outstanding for the Doha round, named after the Qatari capital where the talks were launched in November 2001, are expected to be left for trade ministers to decide on, though such a high-level forum has not been scheduled by the WTO in the next few months.

WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy has repeatedly warned trade diplomats against pushing the long-running talks into 2008, when the U.S. presidential election is expected to tie the hands of Washington's negotiators in Geneva.

He said on Tuesday that the talks had reached a "very critical stage." (Editing by Oliver Bullough)

Source : www.TradeObservatory.org