With most of the major agricultural issues still to be addressed and compromises to be made, trade and agriculture ministers from around the world, including Canada, are planning to meet in Geneva in late April to try to salvage the outline of a World Trade Organization deal.
But among negotiators in Geneva, there is a growing resignation that the April deadline will not be met, according to Canadian agriculture lobbyists who recently visited Geneva to press their objectives during a week of agricultural negotiations.
“Our impression is that we are close to rock bottom as far as getting decisions in this thing,” said Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance executive director Patty Townsend.
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“The big political decisions are missing. It makes me nervous. I didn’t talk to anyone in Geneva who thought they can do in four weeks what they haven’t done in four years.”
The next agriculture negotiating session takes place the week of April 17.
Gordon Hunter, a board member at the Canadian Egg Marketing Agency who was in Geneva as a supply management representative, said negotiators and WTO officials they met generally downplayed the possibility of a breakthrough in April.
“I think the focus is now on getting something by July,” he said.
Sticky issues
The major unresolved agricultural issues, which are considered key to progress in the overall negotiation, include the size of domestic subsidy reductions and the size and scope of tariff cuts and the extent that countries can protect import-sensitive products through a high-tariff sensitive-products category.
