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CREAN (Meeting Chair): Thank you for your patience, the translator is now here and we'll begin the press conference. I'll make some opening remarks and invite my colleagues if they want to add anything, but otherwise we throw it open to questions.

We've just concluded another constructive meeting of the Cairns Group, the first ministerial engagement since the Doha stocktake was undertaken in March. The meeting therefore took place with a mixture of approach: one — the realization that the Cairns Group has been a constructive force not just for ambition but for creativity and flexibility going forward. Secondly, the realisation that the stocktake shows that we still have a way to go before we conclude the Round. It was the Cairns Group meeting last year in Bali that really created the first opportunity for re-engagement and a drive for a more flexible approach for concluding the Round. We were joined importantly by the Director-General of the WTO, Pascal Lamy, as well as invited guests that presented to us from the US, from Japan, from the EU, from Mexico, from Egypt. The communiqué is in front of you. It again continues to call for the ambition which the Cairns Group has always sought, but it also recognises that we've got to continue the dialogue and find the opportunities going forward for informal gatherings of ministers in other groups to convince them of what we are convinced about, and that is the need to conclude the Round. Despite the difficulties that faces, there is a determination to try and find the way through and to find that way through not on any retreat on what's on the table, in other words, to bridge the gap based on what is already on the table.

I invite any of the other colleagues that wish to make an opening statement and then we will open the press conference questions.

(Luis Almagro, Foreign Affairs Minister of Uruguay speaks in Spanish, no English translation)

José Antonio Galilea, Agriculture Minister, Chile: Chile has always participated and supported the Cairns Group, in an attempt to help countries come out of poverty… understanding that trade liberalisation has as its aim development and overcoming poverty. We should no longer be negative or frustrated about all these processes, we should try to turn things around and become more positive. Good ideas and good endings are always at hand. This idea is so powerful that the time will come when we will be able to go against all the obstacles and we'll be successful in convincing others about the great chances of trade liberalisation. From now until the next meeting of the Cairns Group we look forward for things to develop in such a way that we will be able to convince those nations that still believe that there is a block that would not be possible to overcome. Mr Chairman, let me remind you that you can count on Chile as a full-fledged member of the Cairns Group and we will support your effort.

Alfredo Chiaradía, Secretary of Trade, Argentina: As the representative of trade for Argentina I just want to underline that the former speakers have referred very clearly to the spirit that really moved us during the conversations these days in Punta del Este. So I will limit my participation to refer to some of the objectives that have to do with the work of the group in general and the reason why Argentina is participating in this group. For this purpose I will refer to what the President Mujica of Uruguay shared with delegates on the occasion of this meeting. Among the many very interesting and valuable ideas that he shared with us, he transmitted his perception about something which is very profound. He said that if the world were more equitable then there would be more demand for food in the world. Apart from the value that these words represent for the members of the Cairns Group, this seems to be a very important economic objective for the rest of the world. And that can only become a reality if our negotiations were only to go back to where the Doha Round was originally, a Round proposed in order to work in favour of development. So, what we should do from now on is to become guardians, so that this Round is really meant for a more equitable and useful world, so that we can help the development of our own countries. This should be a Round for equity and not a round for accessing new markets only. The existing distortions in Agriculture that are translated as subsidies, subsidies for exports, subsidies for internal production, if those are all eliminated we will have a greater capacity for growth, and in the end we will be accessing more open markets. So the objectives of the Cairns Group will then be met, and the main objectives are the elimination of these trade distortions and also the liberalisation of agriculture trade.

Crean: Are there any questions, please?

Journalist: According to a meeting that we had, the press and Director General of the WTO Pascal Lamy, Mr Lamy expressed that there is technical capacity to finish the Doha Round by 2010, but the only thing that is lacking is the political decision on the part of the EU and US. Do you agree with that, do you believe that there is a lack of political goodwill?

Luis Almagro, Foreign Affairs Minister of Uruguay: From a diplomatic point of view, this is a matter of…like a different feeling, it's not a lack of political decision or good will. From the technical point of view, a lot of work has been done and we have made a lot of progress, we still need to close on some specific issues. Maybe by the end of 2010 we would be in a position to complete the Doha Round, we will have to wait probably for the US legislation period to be completed, there is still some technical work we need to complete in Geneva, for example in the case of subsidies for fisheries or the SSM.

Crean: I believe that political will exists to conclude the Round. What we are struggling with is the ability to take the technical work to the set in which all the parts come together, and that is the fundamental issue with negotiations. We won't address those without ongoing political engagement but when the right time for that political engagement exists, depends very much on how these moving parts can be brought together. This was the first political engagement since the stocktake, it won't be the last, there are others scheduled and we've got to take every opportunity before the end of 2010 to push the parameters to try and achieve that conclusion in that timeframe.

Journalist: I'd like to know if you can help me to understand how the US Farm Bill is related to your task, is it intrinsically important? Can the Doha Round be concluded before the US Congress passes another Farm Bill? Can you talk about that for a little bit?

Crean: It is our intention to try and conclude the Round before the next Farm Bill, and obviously were the timetable of 2010 to be achieved, or significant progress… we would be well down that path. But it's not just the US Farm Bill that's up for reconsideration — so too are the farm reforms in the EU. In an odd sort of way, we have a happy conjunction of the considerations by both the Congress and the European parliament commencing now for the future direction of those pieces of legislation. So regardless of when the Round concludes, I think it is really important that consideration by both the EU and the US be required to take account of what is on the table, even if not concluded. And as a matter of interest I think given the fiscal positions of both the US and the EU there will always be strong budgetary considerations to be taken into account in both cases. Any more questions? If not, we thank you for your attendance. Thank you.

See also

• 35th Cairns Group Ministerial Meeting Communiqué

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