Agriculture reform on the EU agenda
in Rome this week that he believes preliminary WTO farm trade talks
have established a viable platform for future negotiations. "The
European Commission's post-Cancun reflection phase has come to an
end," he said. "We have put on the table a comprehensive
strategy how to kick-start the talks when the WTO meets in Geneva
on 15 December."
Fischler said that even though Cancun was a missed opportunity, the EU remains prepared to shoulder a bigger burden in making agriculture markets more open. But he believes that without properly addressing the complexities of farm support and without tackling protectionism and trade barriers, a fair WTO deal will not be possible.
The Commissioner believes that for this month's WTO farm negotiations to be successful, they need to address a number of key issues. First up, developing countries have to get a better deal.
"This WTO round is not by coincidence called a development agenda," he said. "All developed countries should grant completely duty and quota free access for exports from the 49 poorest countries in the world and they should give zero duty access to at least 50 per cent of their imports from the remaining, economically more robust developing countries," he said.
Secondly, Fischler believes that an "all-or-nothing" strategy must be avoided. "When Cancun blew up, developing countries, who stand most to win from farm trade liberalisation, left Cancun empty handed. No considerable improvement of market access, no substantial cuts in trade-distorting farm support, no elimination of all forms of export promotion, no special treatment for them, nothing. In short, the G-19 scored a classic own goal."
In addition, Fischler said that reforms have to be recognised and not penalised. "The EU has come a long way. Until recently, trade-distorting support was clearly dominant in the EU's farm policy. This has completely changed, especially as a result of the June 2003 reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). If farm policy reform is to be recognised instead of penalised it must be reflected in the Doha Development Agenda (DDA). If the different impact of different farm policies on world markets, prices and developing countries is ignored, why bother to reform at all?"
Finally, Fischler claimed that the rich simply cannot go it alone. "The farm policies of rich nations are not the only reason why developing countries have not reaped enough benefits from trade liberalisation," he said. "The World Bank says that 80 per cent of the benefits from farm liberalisation would come from reductions in the barriers between poor countries themselves."
He pointed out that while Europe has an average farm tariff of only 10 per cent, Brazil has 30 per cent and the average tariff of all developing countries amounts to 60 per cent. Fischler claims therefore that both rich and developing countries need to reduce their trade barriers for their own good.
But of course, not all developing countries are on the same level. "Burkina Faso cannot compete with Brazil, Mali not with Thailand. More advanced developing countries have to do more than the least developed," the Commissioner concluded.
