WTO releases revised blueprints for Doha Round of free trade talks

GENEVA, Dec. 7 Kyodo - The World Trade Organization released Saturday a set of revised proposals for its seven-year-old free trade talks, with Japan facing tougher farm trade conditions.
The new negotiating texts, issued by the chairmen of the farm and industrial
negotiating groups, will serve as the basis for a possible meeting of ministers
from major trading powers later this week in Geneva.
Trade chiefs are preparing to make another attempt to reach a breakthrough in
the Doha Round of trade talks following recent calls from many world leaders to
do so as a way to bolster confidence in the world economy, badly battered by
the recent financial turbulence.
''With these revised texts, we are closer to our goal of clinching modalities
in agriculture and industry, a stepping stone towards the conclusion of the
Doha Round,'' WTO Director General Pascal Lamy said in a statement.
For Japan, the biggest concern in the talks is how to adequately protect its
politically sensitive farm products, including rice, sugar and wheat, from
imports.
Under the revised text for farm negotiations, developed countries are basically
allowed to designate up to 4 percent of products as ''sensitive'' to protect
them from steep tariff cuts.
Japan has sought at least 8 percent of all farm products to be treated as such.
The text still allows developed countries to designate an additional 2 percent
as sensitive agricultural products under certain conditions. But it suggested
that raising the ceiling to more than 6 percent is unlikely.
New Zealand's WTO ambassador Crawford Falconer, who penned the text, however,
added a note of caution that Japan and Canada are not in a position to comply
with the proposed limitation.
In the previous text, dated July 10, developed countries were allowed to have
an exemption range from 4 percent to 6 percent and an additional 2 percent.
Japan has a total of 1,332 agricultural tariff lines, out of which levies of
more than 200 percent have been imposed on 101 that are classified as highly
important products to shield from cheap imports.
If a ceiling of 6 percent is placed, Japan can secure only about 80 of those
for exemption from tariff cuts. But with an 8 percent exemption, all 101 tariff
lines will be covered.
The latest documents on agriculture and manufactured goods capture the
progress, as well as the remaining differences seen in the past months among
WTO members since July, when a group of ministers last time failed to make a
major breakthrough in Geneva.
The documents, the fourth revision since July last year, acknowledged that WTO
members are still divided over many other delicate issues, including proposals
to safeguard farmers in poor countries from a surge in imports and scrapping
tariffs on specific industrial sectors, such as chemical and electrical
products.
''I found no big surprise in these texts,'' as many of the changes made this
time are in line with a set of compromise proposals put on the table by Lamy
during the previous ministerial meeting, a senior Japanese farm ministry
official told reporters Sunday in Tokyo.
''But it would not mean that the likelihood of striking a deal is increasing as
the texts proved that there are many unresolved issues,'' he said, adding that
Japan has no plan to change its position of adhering to the 8 percent exemption
target.
The WTO chief said he is ''now gauging the reaction of members to these texts
and members' willingness to convergence'' on an outline deal by the end of the
year.
Lamy has hinted at convening a ministerial meeting of key WTO members in Geneva
as early as next Saturday.
Trade negotiators say Lamy is likely to make his position clear on the planned
meeting as early as Monday.
''This is not the time for unrealistic demands. Nor is it the time for
inflexible stances,'' Lamy said Saturday after the release of the revised
texts. ''This is the time for collective moves toward global solutions.''
==Kyodo