World officials gather to jump-start WTO talks
Trade officials from 18 agricultural nations began gathering today in Australia in hope of jump-starting stalled World Trade Organisation talks, which developing countries say are critical to lifting millions of people out of poverty.
CAIRNS: Trade officials from 18 agricultural nations began gathering today in Australia in hope of jump-starting stalled World Trade Organisation talks, which developing countries say are critical to lifting millions of people out of poverty.
The 20th anniversary meeting of the Cairns Group of agricultural trading nations was set to start tomorrow in the northeastern Australian city of Cairns.
Officials at the meeting will aim to breathe new life into the Doha Round of WTO talks, suspended in July largely over a disagreement on how to reduce agricultural subsidies and tariffs.
The Doha Round, named after the Qatari capital where they began in 2001, has been billed as the WTO's "development round," with dozens of developing and agricultural trading nations calling for dramatic cuts in farm trade barriers that they say limit their access to markets.
Australia's Trade Minister Mark Vaile said the three-day Cairns Group meeting would focus entirely on breaking the current impasse.
"What's at stake is whether or not we can get this round moving again and a negotiated outcome that can be concluded by early of next year," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp radio today.
The Cairns group members are Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Paraguay, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Uruguay.
The group was formed in August 1986 to lobby for the removal of global farm trade barriers. Its first meeting was held in Cairns.
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