Speech
9 September 2003
to the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP)
Cancún, 9 September 2003
Introduction
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure to have this opportunity to address the International Federation of Agricultural Producers on such an important occasion.
Today we stand at a critical juncture in the negotiations for the WTO Doha round.
Decisions taken over the coming days and the level of ambition that we display here in Cancun will determine whether the Doha round becomes a turning point in the history of global trade or a mere footnote.
Agriculture is the key to it all. Today I want to give you a few reasons why this is the case.
- Why minor adjustments to the status quo on agriculture will not be enough.
- And, why the Cairns Group (and other like minded countries) will play a central role in carrying the agricultural reform agenda forward.
Negotiations at a crossroads
In 2001 the WTO launched the most wide-ranging and ambitious round of multilateral trade negotiations ever.
Central to the ambition of the Doha round - indeed the key to the success of round itself - is agriculture.
Two years ago trade ministers from around the world stood together at Doha and agreed to an ambitious mandate and timetable for agricultural reform. We all acknowledged how essential this issue was to the success of the round.
It is now time to turn those commitments, agreed to by all WTO members, into concrete action.
If we don't - if we can't - we will lock the world into grossly distorted and unfair agricultural trading practices for years to come. Indeed we will miss what I believe is the last opportunity for real reform of the global agricultural trade.
For a country like Australia this is an opportunity we cannot afford - and we are not prepared - to miss.
Our farmers need markets that are not corrupted by the subsidies and protectionist practices of a few rich countries. They have struggled to survive in the face of high tariffs and artificially low prices for too many years.
But we are not the only country with a lot riding on reform. I know that IFAP, an organisation representing farmers in 71 countries, has a vital stake in these negotiations.
In particular, the decisions we make Vatican will have a fundamental impact on the future of the developing world - a developing world that was promised genuine reform at Doha.
If we fail on agriculture some developing countries will find themselves relying on preferential trading arrangements - arrangements that lock them into producing a small number of low value-added products and whose benefits are, inevitably, eroded over time. Other developing countries will be frozen out of markets altogether.
In contrast, as the President of the World Bank has noted, phasing out agricultural subsidies and tariffs in high-income countries would lead to increases in annual income in developing countries of the order of US$150-$400 billion within five years of completing the reforms.
It is time for those countries that regularly pay lip service to the goal of global development to demonstrate that their pledges of support for the developing world - including at Doha two years ago - go beyond reassuring rhetoric.
The time to deliver on those pledges is now.
A high level of ambition
My delegation and I are prepared to work as hard as necessary here in Cancún, but only on the condition that others are as serious and as ambitious as we are about making genuine progress on agricultural reform.
We are willing to be open-minded; we are willing to be pragmatic and constructive. But reform proposals that do little more than fiddle around the edges will not be enough.
The negotiating modalities for agriculture that we set at Cancun must be capable of delivering outcomes in line with the Doha mandate - that is:
- an end date for the elimination of export subsidies
- real cuts to trade-distorting domestic support, beyond what has been proposed by the EU and the US
- and substantial improvements in market access; cuts to tariffs and increases to quota access - that deliver increased trade flows.
Anything short of this is a failure: a failure of ambition; a failure to deliver on the promise of the Doha Development Agenda.
Anything short of this will simply be unacceptable.
Today you have heard many different recipes for agricultural reform, including the argument that minor adjustments to the status quo, combined with some preferential arrangements, are the solution, particularly for developing countries.
I will be blunt. Such an approach simply will not work. It would only benefit a handful of rich countries seeking to maintain huge agricultural subsidies, regardless of the damage their policies inflict on less privileged farmers around the world.
I know that there have been efforts to bridge the gaps that exist between WTO members on agriculture, and I welcome those efforts. But Australia and the Cairns Group will not substitute process for outcomes.
The draft "framework for establishing modalities on agriculture" circulated by General Council Chair Perez de Castillo on 24 August is an effort to reconcile widely divergent views. But it falls short in several important respects.
Similarly, efforts by the EU and US to find common ground are welcome. But not if all they produce is a lowest common denominator result.
Role of the Cairns Group
The Cairns Group will remain central to our effort to push the boundaries of agricultural reform.
It has tabled proposals on domestic support, market access and export subsidies that would deliver substantial outcomes in line with the Doha mandate, while building in the flexibility needed to meet the special needs of developing countries.
We are happy to look constructively at alternatives, so long as these have the potential to deliver the Doha mandate. In fact the Cairns Group has spent a considerable amount of time over the last two years on outreach activities.
We want to work with others, such as the G20, which includes many Cairns Group members and which has adopted many of the Cairns Group's stated positions.
We have welcomed the new coalition and the new partners it brings for agricultural trade reform, including important agricultural producers such as India and China.
It is my hope that together we will finally be able to translate the rhetoric of Doha into a new reality at Canún.
Conclusion
Ladies and Gentlemen, today in Cancún, global trade is at a crossroads.
Either we deal seriously over coming days with the issue of agricultural reform, or we watch the Doha round become an irrelevance.
Our choice is that stark. Let's hope that the countries assembled here have the courage to make the right choice.
Thank You.
Contact: Matthew Doman: 52-998-842 3221 (in Cancun) 61-2-6277 7420 (in Australia)