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With the WTO's Doha Development Round negotiations commencing
again in February, hopes are running high that a final deal can
eventually be reached.
Last July, the negotiations ended abruptly after the participants
failed to find common ground in a number of areas, but especially over
agricultural subsidies.
Jim Sutton, New Zealand's ambassador for trade, agreed Monday with
Indonesia that it was of paramount importance to find solutions to the
challenges faced by small farmers in developing countries.
"There is no doubt that reforms are needed in agriculture in most
countries. But this must be accomplished without threatening the
livelihoods of small farmers and without threatening their security of
occupation on their traditional land," Sutton said.
He was visiting Indonesia to gain a firsthand insight into this
country's perspectives on the negotiations.
Like Indonesia, he said, New Zealand was a country where agriculture
played an important role in society.
"Agriculture is central to the economies of both countries. In New
Zealand's case, in terms of exports, it accounts for about 50 percent
of our export income. So it is clearly vital to our economy and that
makes us different from virtually every other developed economy or OECD
member."
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is an
international organization of developed countries that accepts the
principles of representative democracy and the free market.
As a result of being a heavily agriculture-based country, Sutton said
that New Zealand had a lot in common with the majority of developing
economies, whose interests are represented by the Group of 33, or G-33,
in the Doha negotiations.
The G-33, which in fact has 46 member countries, with Indonesia as
their leader, has proposed the adoption of the "special products and
special security mechanism" (SP-SSM), which requires the exemption from
tariff reductions of certain products so as to protect food security
and promote rural development in developing countries.
"I would say that New Zealand has always been supportive of special
treatment for special products, and of the creation of special
safeguard measures. These provisions have been endorsed by the WTO as a
whole. We need to move forward now and solve the problems relating to
that."
Sutton added that the most pressing issue at the present time was to
define the criteria for designation as a special product.
"It's really only the developing countries, probably led by the G-33
and the G-20, which can provide those answers. But it's also important
that it be understood that there are no products that can permanently
be exempted from fair trading rules."
During his two-day visit here, Sutton, who is a former New Zealand
minister for trade negotiations and agriculture, met with
representatives of farmers' unions and prominent business figures.
In 2006, Indonesia's exports to New Zealand amounted to US$10.5
million, while imports from New Zealand stood at $8.7 million.
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