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The European Union (EU) and the United States (US) have expressed support for the G-20 proposal on market access in agriculture in the ongoing Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations. Ms. Marianne Boll Fischer, the EU Agriculture Commissioner, while speaking at the inaugural session of the informal World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting – mini ministerial – in Dalian in China last evening, said: “ We are willing to develop the structure of an agricultural market access formula using the G-20 proposal as a starting point”. The US, a votary of the Swiss formula which had been strongly opposed by the G-20 and the developing countries, conceded that the G-20 proposal was a “positive contribution”. The expression of support by the EU Ms Fischer and the US Trade Representative Mr. Rob Portman came soon after Mr. Celso Amorim, Foreign Minister of Brazil and Mr. Kamal Nath, Minister of Commerce and Industry, gave their views at the mini ministerial opening session on agriculture. Earlier, the G-20 ministers present in Dalian had held a meeting to discuss issues in the agriculture negotiations.
Participating in the mini ministerial session, Mr. Kamal Nath reiterated his call to have a development audit of the WTO to assess how far the development promise of the Uruguay Round in the last decade or so had been fulfilled and also to suggest what would be required in the key areas like agriculture to deliver on development. He further suggested that the first development audit report should be prepared before the ministerial conference of the WTO in Hong Kong scheduled to be held in December, 2005. He emphasized that development audit he had mooted at the mini ministerial in Paris six weeks ago was not meant to be restricted to the so-called Implementation Issues. “ It is an intrinsic part of every aspect of the WTO negotiations - whether it is agriculture, non-agricultural market access (NAMA), or Services”, he said.
SB/MRS
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