Cairns group & WTO

["Ian Murray" <seamus2001@xxxxxxxx>]

Tuesday September 4 5:45 AM ET

Officials at Farm Summit Look to WTO

PUNTA DEL ESTE, Uruguay (AP) - U.S. Trade Representative Robert
Zoellick says this week's summit of the world's biggest farm exporting
nations will be key to the success of the upcoming round of global
trade talks.

Zoellick and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman are leading the
U.S. delegation to the Cairns Group meeting in this South American
resort. The American delegation is participating in the group's 22nd
Ministerial Meeting as a guest.

Among the topics being discussed was an upcoming ministerial meeting
of the World Trade Organization in Doha, Qatar. Brazil and Argentina
have said that if agriculture reform isn't part of the November talks
in Qatar, there shouldn't be another round.

After emerging from a meeting Monday with Uruguayan President Jorge
Batlle, Zoellick said, ``We talked about trying to work together with
Cairns and others to try and make the launch in Doha a success.''

Zoellick and Veneman also were meeting with foreign ministers from the
Southern Cone Common Market, or Mercosur, to discuss a possible
U.S.-Mercosur free trade area. Mercosur, the world's third-largest
trade bloc, comprises Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Bolivia
and Chile are associate members.

``We talked about an informal four-plus-one meeting we'll have ... to
prepare for the discussions we'll have in Washington during
September,'' Zoellick told reporters.

All six countries are also members of the Cairns Group of 17
agricultural exporting nations formed in 1986 to put farm trade reform
on the global trade agenda. Its members account for about one-third of
world farm exports and also include Australia, Canada, Indonesia,
Malaysia, Thailand and South Africa.

Although Washington subsidizes its farmers and agricultural exports to
the tune of $92 billion a year, U.S. delegations are routinely invited
to participate in Cairns Group meetings.

So far the United States has only held bilateral talks with host
country Uruguay, though Agriculture Secretary Veneman said a meeting
with Brazil is scheduled.

Brazil, along with Argentina, has taken a hard-line stance that if
agriculture reform isn't part of the WTO talks in Qatar in November,
then there shouldn't be another round.

Veneman acknowledged the importance of agriculture to the Brazilians.
``But agriculture is very important for us as well. And any global
round that goes forward, agriculture for many countries, particularly
the Cairns Group and the United States, is going to be very central to
any negotiations.''

The United States and Brazil, two of the world's biggest agricultural
powerhouses, have a long history of trade disputes. U.S. sugar beet
farmers fear that trade talks could allow Brazilian producers to flood
the American market with a less expensive product.

In addition, the Brazilian government requires all gasoline in the
South American country contain a 22 percent mix of cane-based ethanol.
U.S. farmers often point to Brazil's ethanol program as a subsidy of
sorts for the country's sugar cane industry.