Trade Minister, Mark Vaile, said today his participation at the WTO Informal Ministerial Meeting in Switzerland this week allowed Australia to play an active role in developing the potential negotiation agenda for a new round of multilateral trade negotiations. "The meeting, with Ministers from over 20 major trading countries, provided a good opportunity for me to underline Australia's interests in a short, sharp and focussed negotiating round that concentrates on delivering market access gains in agriculture, services and industrial products", Mr Vaile said. "The Switzerland meeting is one of the critical benchmarks in the preparations for the WTO Ministerial Conference to be held in Seattle from November 30 to December 3, at which the negotiating agenda is to be agreed. "While differing views remain about the range of issues which should be included in future negotiations, a consensus was now emerging that a new Round should be launched," Mr Vaile said. Mr Vaile underlined the need for ambitious negotiations on agriculture that would result in agriculture trade taking on the same terms as trade in other goods, ending decades of discrimination against efficient producers. "I warned the European Union and Japan not to go back on their commitment to continued agriculture liberalisation resulting in fundamental reform in the next round of negotiations," Mr Vaile said. Mr Vaile also made a strong push for negotiations in industrial goods to complement the negotiations on agriculture and services already agreed to begin in 2000 by WTO members. Mr Vaile emphasised the importance of remaining focused on the end-goal during the inevitably pressured lead-up to the Seattle Ministerial: crafting a balanced agenda for future negotiations. "The world needs timely outcomes which will continue
the momentum of trade reform. It is vital that expectations about
what can be achieved in a three-year round remain realistic,"
he said.
|
|||||||||||