The World Trade Organization (WTO) recently suggested abolishing customs duties on tropical products for developed countries and limiting safeguard measures that protect developing countries from massive imports.
The paper issued by Crawford Falconer, published on le 26th May this year, is the last of a preliminary series of proposals, which when presented a month earlier already caused strong reactions. Recognized as “provocative” by the author himself and qualified as “unbalanced” by the former French Minister of Agriculture, Dominique Bussereau, the first report suggested a significant decrease in European and American agricultural subsidies and a radical reduction of customs duties.
The second series of proposals from the New Zealand ambassador specifies that the customs duties levied by developed countries on tropical products should be reduced to zero when their rates are less than 25%, and by 85% when they are above this rate. His position therefore is aligned with that of the Cairns group, a coalition of agricultural exporting countries, including Australia, Canada, Brazil and New Zealand…
The WTO, through Crawford Falconer, goes further and expresses its wish to limit the safeguard mechanism regarding certain products. This emergency measure, consisting in the licit implementation, during a limited period, of dispensations to WTO rules (mainly the lifting of trade barriers), allows developing countries to protect their economies against waves of imports that destroy subsistence farming and increase food dependence. By taking a clear stand on the side of exporting countries, the WTO opposes the G33 position, which on the contrary, wants the safety mechanism to be applied to all imported products. The G33 today includes 46 developing countries such as India, China and Kenya, mostly importers of agricultural products and characterized by a large rural population.
These proposals, which aim to jump-start the Doha Round negotiations, will lead to total trade deregulation. Supposedly beneficial for everyone, deregulation is in no way justified for agricultural markets: in-depth analyses of the resulting costs have not been carried out and we know that the WTO doctrine and the models it uses do not take into account agricultural specificities. This is why WOAgri is creating the NAR model. |