US, rich nations blamed for collapse of WTO talks
07/30/2008 | 01:29 PM
MANILA, Philippines - The United States, together with the world’s richest nations, was blamed for the collapse of ongoing negotiations of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva.
In a statement, Rice Watch and Action Network (R1) said that the Group of Seven countries continued to insist on liberalizing the entry of imported products into developing countries such as the Philippines.
Citing informal talks held between rich nations and developing countries, the group said that the G7 continued to “tighten the flexibilities" to which developing countries are entitled.
According to sources, rich countries agreed to allow the Philippines and other developing countries to increase import tariffs only if “massive importation in agricultural products breaks 40 percent of the previous year’s import volumes."
“The G33 or the group of developing countries are said to have rejected this position. However, the US further increased this to 50 percent of the previous year’s import volume and price trigger that led to the collapse of the talks," the group said in a statement.
“The United States and the G7 wanted us to be severely hit by massive importation first before we’ll be able to get remedies from tariff increase. This is an unfair deal that should be rejected. We commend our agriculture negotiators for standing by our interests," said Cantos.
WTO Director General Pascal Lamy called for open-ended negotiations last week to break the impasse in the Doha Development Round.
R1 is pushing for the Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) that would allow tariff adjustment of agricultural products severely affected by import surges. The local farm sector has to contend with import surges in agricultural products at prices lower than the local produce.
Earlier, the group asked the agriculture negotiators to stand firm on the G33’s proposal to allocate at least 20 percent of agricultural tariff lines as Special Products (SPs). Under the WTO modalities, these are allowed tariff reduction smaller than the formula approved in the negotiations. The group also pushed for the exemption of half of the SPs from tariff reduction. - GMANews.TV
In a statement, Rice Watch and Action Network (R1) said that the Group of Seven countries continued to insist on liberalizing the entry of imported products into developing countries such as the Philippines.
Citing informal talks held between rich nations and developing countries, the group said that the G7 continued to “tighten the flexibilities" to which developing countries are entitled.
According to sources, rich countries agreed to allow the Philippines and other developing countries to increase import tariffs only if “massive importation in agricultural products breaks 40 percent of the previous year’s import volumes."
“The G33 or the group of developing countries are said to have rejected this position. However, the US further increased this to 50 percent of the previous year’s import volume and price trigger that led to the collapse of the talks," the group said in a statement.
“The United States and the G7 wanted us to be severely hit by massive importation first before we’ll be able to get remedies from tariff increase. This is an unfair deal that should be rejected. We commend our agriculture negotiators for standing by our interests," said Cantos.
WTO Director General Pascal Lamy called for open-ended negotiations last week to break the impasse in the Doha Development Round.
R1 is pushing for the Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) that would allow tariff adjustment of agricultural products severely affected by import surges. The local farm sector has to contend with import surges in agricultural products at prices lower than the local produce.
Earlier, the group asked the agriculture negotiators to stand firm on the G33’s proposal to allocate at least 20 percent of agricultural tariff lines as Special Products (SPs). Under the WTO modalities, these are allowed tariff reduction smaller than the formula approved in the negotiations. The group also pushed for the exemption of half of the SPs from tariff reduction. - GMANews.TV
