Despite a call last week from Cairns Group ministers, including Canada, for a renewed push to complete a world trade deal, Canada’s trade minister sees little reason to be optimistic.
Peter Van Loan also rejected suggestions from some Cairns countries that this summer’s meeting of G20 leaders in Toronto be used to invigorate the foundering World Trade Organization talks, stalled for almost two years and now in their ninth year.
“We support the WTO process and we hope it advances,” Van Loan said in an April 21 interview. “We’ll be willing to put our shoulder to the wheel but I have to confess I’m not overly optimistic.”
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He said the G20 meeting of developed and developing countries hosted by prime minister Stephen Harper should not be hijacked by the WTO issue since the group’s focus is more narrowly financial.
“I’m not sure the G20 is the right mechanism for doing that (trying to revitalize trade talks),” said the minister. “If everybody tries to make the G20 the vehicle for their particular cause or interest, that will probably render the G20 ineffective. The key to its success is to stay focused on a tight agenda.”
In Uruguay last week, ministers from the 19 countries that make up the Cairns Group lamented the slow progress at WTO talks.
The coalition of agricultural exporters was formed in Cairns, Australia, in 1986 to promote battling agricultural protectionism and production-distorting subsidies by including agriculture in the world trade agreement.
“We note the slow pace of the negotiations since July 2008,” the ministers said. “While there has been some progress since last year’s Cairns Group ministerial meetings, conclusion of the round is still not within our grasp.”
They cautioned against any attempt to reach a WTO deal by watering down the outcome.
“The Cairns Group remains determined to reach an ambitious and balanced outcome in the agriculture negotiations in line with the agreed mandate,” said the communiqué issued at the end of the meeting. “To achieve that goal, we will continue our efforts at both the technical and political level to resolve the outstanding issues so that the round can be concluded as soon as possible.”
The working text now on the table in Geneva would include an end to export subsidies and elimination of state trading enterprises like the Canadian Wheat Board by 2013, reductions in domestic subsidies and across-the-board tariff cuts including reduction of over-quota tariffs that now protect Canadian supply management.
