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G. Srinivasan

Mr Arun Jaitley

Mr Robert Zoellick

Cancun , Sept 10

AS the ministerial conference of the WTO gets under way, the world's oldest avocation, agriculture appears to hold the key to the success of the Doha Round talks, with trade majors like the US and the EU unrelenting in their posture and developing countries coalition led by India and Brazil equally sticking to their declared stance.

At a pre-ministerial press meet held on Tuesday here, the US Trade Representative, Mr Robert Zoellick, conceded that "much of the attention here is going to be on agriculture. But the bottomline for Washington in the negotiations is market access — lower import tariffs and similar easing of measures for industrial products and services".

Mr Zoellick also hinted at the ministers resuming talks in Geneva six months later to iron out the differences and complete the modalities for negotiations.

The EU Trade Commissioner, Mr Pascal Lamy, and the Agriculture Commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler, criticised the G-21 including the late entrant Egypt for "asking for the moon" on the elimination of subsidies and cautioned them against "false expectations" about the outcome of the Ministerial. In a direct attack on Brazil, China and India and other alliance partners, Mr Fischler said: "When considering their recent extreme proposal, I can't help but think that we are in different orbits entirely. If they want to do business, they should put both feet on the ground."

Mr Lamy said "we can negotiate the elimination of export products of special interest to developing countries".The Cairns Group spokesperson from Australia said: "We are seeking to build the modalities on agriculture step by step. Certain proposals of great weight now envisage starting with frameworks for modalities." Cairns Group said Ministers at Cancun must give political direction on the level of ambition, even if the crucial step of agreeing on final numbers for the minimum commitments may need to be negotiated after Cancun.

This was subsequently endorsed when the G-21 Trade Ministers of India, China, Brazil, South Africa addressed a joint press conference late in the evening on Tuesday, reaffirming their unity of purpose in wresting the best advantages in the farm talks for the poor farmers. Mr Jaitley said that the document prepared by the G-21 has been endorsed by all the members, representing 65 per cent of world's agricultural production. He said that the unity displayed by the members was based on consensus and that being a key stakeholder in the agriculture negotiations, they decided to table a framework proposal with a view to making the negotiating process more inclusive and balanced.

The G-21 document said in domestic support, the proposed cuts are complemented by tighter rules and disciplines to ensure that the reform process would be effective and would not degenerate into box and product-shifting. It also spoke of elimination of export subsidies as "economic, political, technical and ethical reasons add up to make their continuation an aberration".

Mr Jaitley and his Brazilian and Chinese counterpart declared that the Group would act in close co-ordination throughout the ministerial conference.

The five-day Ministerial Conference began here with the Mexican President Mr Vincente Fox, opening the fifth Ministerial at the Convention Centre in Cancun. In his opening remarks, Mr Fox said the Cancun Ministerial Conference is a "space to advance in the consolidation of a more solid multilateral trading system that roots out injustices that confronts international challenges with agile solutions and expands free trade to the global level". He said: "We have a new opportunity in Cancun to create the conditions to stimulate fulfilment of the working programme agreed on at the fourth ministerial in Doha."

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