Trade Minister, Mark Vaile, today welcomed an agreement by the Australian, New Zealand, Argentine and Uruguayan dairy industries to work together in seeking further trade liberalisation. The dairy industries of these four countries have united to urge Ministers at the World Trade Organisation Seattle Conference to agree to negotiate a fairer set of rules for international trade in dairy products. Mr Vaile emphasised the lavish subsidies and protection provided by the rich industrialised countries to their dairy industries for many decades had completely distorted world production and trade. "Efficient producers such as Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and Uruguay are not only unfairly shut out of markets, but they are also forced to take lower returns for their product because of the price distorting effect of US and EU subsidies," Mr Vaile said. Mr Vaile said the Uruguay Round had made a start at redressing
this problem. "Australia's objective at the Ministerial Conference this week is to ensure that the next round of WTO negotiations on agriculture achieves the elimination of export subsidies and substantial gains in market access for dairy products," Mr Vaile said. Mr Vaile congratulated the Australian dairy industry in gathering the support of other competitive and efficient dairy industries in publicising the distortions in world dairy trade and highlighting the benefits for all countries in removing these distortions.
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