Entrenched disagreements over farm trade reform have forced a further delay in preparations for next month's World Trade Organisation conference in Cancun, Mexico, leaving trade envoys rushing to complete a draft ministerial declaration on time.
Mr Carlos Perez de Castillo, Uruguay's WTO ambassador and this year's chairman of the ruling general council, told WTO members in Geneva yesterday that he would not be able to present a revised draft ministerial text today as planned.
Work on the draft, which was due for endorsement by the general council on Monday, will continue over the weekend and perhaps into next week - perilously close to the opening of the Cancun meeting on September 10th.
WTO officials said Mr Perez de Castillo needed more time to consult on a flurry of farm trade proposals that developing countries and others had presented this week in response to the US-EU joint paper last week.
Most significant is the demand by 15 developing countries, led by Brazil, India and China, which together account for 60 per cent of the world's farmers, for the elimination of export subsidies and big cuts in state aids to agriculture by rich WTO members.
The US-EU plan would allow export subsidies to continue for some unspecified products and envisages less-stringent reductions in domestic farm support, though there would be a shift to less trade-distorting forms of aid.
The Cairns Group of agricultural exporters and many developing countries have criticised the US-EU proposal for not doing enough to slash the $300 billion-plus spent each year by industrialised nations, mainly the EU and US, on subsidies to their farmers.
They argue that these subsidies, coupled with high border protection, deny access to rich-country markets for competitive producers and force poor farmers out of business by dumping cheap goods on world markets.
Developing countries are also calling for rich countries to cut their tariffs by far more than poor ones would have to.
The US and EU have argued that, since future market opportunities for poor nations lie mainly in south-south trade, countries such as India, with potentially huge domestic markets, should cut their very high tariffs as well.
The two trade superpowers also antagonised Brazil by urging that "significant net food exporting countries" should not be entitled to the more favourable treatment accorded other developing countries, many of which fear losing their protected status and markets to stronger competitors.
However, with India and China, Brazil has created a developing country bloc with the economic and political muscle to ensure that the US and EU cannot dictate the terms of a deal. - (Financial Times Service)
