|
Farm bill apec drive Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020531/wl_canada_nm/canada_trade_apec_canada_col_1http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020531/wl_canada_nm/canada_trade_apec_canada_col_1
U.S. Farm Bill Inspires APEC Drive
Fri May 31,12:02 AM ET
By Pav Jordan
PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico (Reuters) - Canadian Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew said on Thursday a new U.S. farm bill has made APEC (news - web sites) countries more determined than ever to push through new international trade limits on farm subsidies.
"That (the farm bill) demonstrates that we really have to get going on an agricultural-rules, international-rules based system," Pettigrew told Reuters on the sidelines of a meeting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation countries here.
"We all agree, including the United States, that we have to commit to the elimination of export subsidies and the substantial reduction of domestic subsidies as well," he said.
Trade officials from APEC, which represents about 60 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP (news - web sites)), issued a joint declaration on Thursday that they will ensure that global trade talks to eliminate tariffs and subsidies stay on track and are completed in January, 2005.
U.S President George W. Bush (news - web sites) signed into law earlier this month a $51.7 billion farm bill that boosts subsidies for certain U.S. crops and dairy products by 67 percent, raising fears about its commitment to international agreements on trade.
The bill came just six months after the World Trade Organization (news - web sites) (WTO) agreed in Qatar's capital, Doha, to negotiations aimed at reducing agricultural tariffs and other market access barriers, as well as phasing out all forms of farm export subsidies and substantially cutting trade-distorting domestic farm supports.
The United States has justified the farm subsidies on the basis that they do not exceed the limits of international agreements.
"I feel that I have the determination of our fellow members (at APEC) to really get going at building a real rule-based international trade system in agriculture, which really doesn't exist," said Pettigrew.
He added, however, that at the Mexico meeting U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick seemed to have eased fears his country might renege on its trade obligations to the WTO.
"Ambassador Zoellick was clear that the Bush administration was committed to the Doha agenda," said Pettigrew.
Zoellick, who left the two-day APEC meeting before the close, said in a statement the United States was committed to fulfilling the Doha agreements.
U.S.- CANADA SOFTWOOD LUMBER DISPUTE
Pettigrew said after bilateral discussions with Zoellick that the two had not made any progress in the softwood lumber dispute between the two countries, but that Canada remained open to negotiation.
"The channel of negotiation is open," said Pettigrew. "I've made it very clear to Ambassador Zoellick that that remained our favorite course, but that we would not go back to the table of negotiation if the dynamic in the United States had not evolved."
Canada and the United States have been at loggerheads over the lumber issue since last April, when the U.S. government placed tariffs averaging 27 percent, up from 15 percent, on Canadian lumber sold to U.S. home builders.
The tax rise followed complaints from U.S. companies that they could not compete with the cheaper Canadian lumber.
The case is now before the WTO and a panel of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), between the United States, Canada and Mexico.
|
|
