Catherine Riungu, Special Correspondent
12 April 2004
Nairobi — THE DIFFERENCES that led to the collapse of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks in Cancun, Mexico, in September last year could be resolved by July.
During a two-day meeting organised by the WTO and the International Trade Centre (ITC) in Nairobi on March 30-31, both the EU and the US agreed to reduce, and eventually eliminate, the huge agricultural subsidies that led to the deadlock.
Attended by 15 African countries, the meeting was the most successful of a post-Cancun series of meetings that have been held to soften the tough stance adopted by both the US and the EU against developing countries. Officials from the WTO, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad), business associations and government officials attended the high-level meeting.
ITC, which has been organising the meetings, has continuously pushed for a restarting of the talks, arguing that developing countries stand to lose in the heavily skewed international trade system if the contentious issues are not resolved quickly. "Poor countries stand to benefit more from a multilateral trading system of the WTO than from bilateral trade pacts of the US or the EU," Ramamurti Badrinathe, ITC director in charge of trade support services, said, adding that the centre will in future focus on educating the business community in Africa on the implications of regional and bilateral trade agreements.
The latest post-Cancun meeting indicates that there could be a consensus on agricultural subsidies and government procurement ahead of the conclusion of the Doha round of negotiations in July in Hong Kong.
The meeting came barely a month after Kenya's Trade Minister Mukhisa Kituyi hosted the first such meeting on the continent in Mombasa, Kenya, attended by US trade representative Bob Zoellick and EU trade commissioner, Pascal Lamy, as well as 18 African trade ministers.
Last month, ITC held another trade conference in Bonn, Germany, in which agricultural subsidies and import tariffs on agricultural goods - the most controversial issues in any trade negotiations - featured prominently.
These are the very issues where consensus was missing, leading to the collapse of the Cancun talks in which both the US and EU insisted that the huge farm subsidies that they gave their farmers were there to stay. Although both have indicated that they are ready to completely lift the export subsidies, they remain non-committal, with each giving conditions that the ban will be lifted if the other follows suit.
Mr Kituyi, who led the Cancun walkout, says that all parties seem ready for negotiations. Unctad secretary general Rubens Ricupero says that developed countries have an obligation to assist Africa to fully integrate in the world trade system. He points out that poor countries are reluctant to participate fully in international trade talks because of the unfair subsidies.
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