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NOTE:
THIS BRIEFING NOTE IS DESIGNED TO HELP JOURNALISTS AND THE PUBLIC
UNDERSTAND DEVELOPMENTS IN THE CANCÚN MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE. WHILE
EVERY EFFORT HAS BEEN MADE TO ENSURE THE CONTENTS ARE ACCURATE, IT
DOES NOT PREJUDICE MEMBER GOVERNMENTS' POSITIONS.
> Cancún
briefing notes
Meeting
summaries:
> 11 September
> 12 September
> 13 September
> 14 September
Draft declaration:
Draft Cancún Declaration, as forwarded by Pérez del Castillo and
Supachai to ministers:
text and
covering
letter.
Revised draft Ministerial declaration
as presented by Chairperson Luis Ernesto Derbez on the fourth day of
the Cancún Ministerial Conference.
Other WTO Ministerials:
>
Doha
9–14 Nov. 2001
>
Seattle
30 Nov–3 Dec 1999
> Geneva 18 & 20 May 1998
>
Singapore 9–13 Dec. 1996
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The opening session featured statements from the conference chairperson,
Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez, WTO Director-General
Supachai Panitchpakdi, General Council chairperson and Uruguay’s
ambassador to the WTO Carlos Pérez del Castillo, UNCTAD
Secretary-General Rubens Ricupero (on behalf of UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan) and President Fox.
> See statements
Ministers then proceeded to the business of the conference. Chairperson
Derbez announced that he had invited five ministers to act as
“facilitators” to help him with negotiations on various subjects:
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Agriculture — George Yeo Yong-Bon, Singapore’s Trade and
Industry Minister
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Non-agricultural market access (NAMA) — Henry Tang Ying-yen,
Hong Kong China’s Financial Secretary
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Development issues — Mukhisa Kituyi, Kenya’s Trade and Industry
Minister
-
“Singapore” issues — Pierre Pettigrew, Canada’s, International
Trade Minister
-
Other issues — Clement Rohee, Guyana’s Foreign Trade and
International Cooperation Minister (this includes the TRIPS registry
for geographical indications for wines and spirits, and other topics)
> For the Doha “friends of the chair”,
see Doha first day report
At a press conference later, Director-General Supachai and Chairperson
Derbez said the facilitators have started consultations with individual
groups and delegations. The facilitators will report to Mr Derbez and
work-proper will be launched with an informal meeting of all ministers
(“heads of delegations”) during the morning of the second day, Thursday
11 September. Meetings open to all delegations on some or all of the
five subjects will start in the afternoon. Chairperson Derbez said that
the topics to be discussed under “other issues” would depend on
suggestions from delegations.
As in previous Minsiterial Conferences, these informal meetings will
take place while the formal plenary continues with general statements
from ministers.
The cotton proposal
back
to top
This issue was originally raised in the General Council and Agriculture
Committee by Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali. The proposal is now a
Ministerial Conference document,
WT/MIN(03)/W/2 and
WT/MIN(03)/W/2/Add.1. It describes the damage that the four believe
has been caused to them by cotton subsidies in richer countries, calls
for the subsidies to be eliminated, and for compensation to be paid to
the four while the subsidies are being paid out to cover economic losses
caused by the subsidies. The proposal seeks a decision in this Cancún
Ministerial Conference.
In the evening plenary session, the four presented their case. They
described how cotton is important to their economies, and how in some
years total subsidies in rich countries amount to almost as much as the
value of world trade in cotton. They are competitive, they argued, but
find it difficult to compete with the subsidies. They described their
proposal as a solution that would allow them to participate more in the
international trading system and to use trade in order to lift
themselves out of poverty. By making the proposal in this way, they are
demonstrating their faith in the trading system and its equitable rules,
they said.
WTO Director-General Supachai urged ministers to consider the proposal
seriously. Remarking that he did not usually intervene in debates like
this, Dr Supachai said that the issue is important. He observed that the
four are not asking for special treatment, but for a solution based on a
fair multilateral trading system. He also said the proposal underscores
the need for ambitious results in the agriculture negotiations as a
whole, based on the Doha mandate.
The proposal received support from Canada, Australia, Argentina,
Cameroon, Guinea, South Africa, Bangladesh (for least-developed
countries), Senegal and India — either for the whole proposal or key
parts such as phasing out subsidies. Several of these countries said
other products face similar problems.
The US said that distortions in cotton are not only caused by subsidies
in the sector, for example industrial policies that support production
for synthetic fibres, high tariffs on finished products and good
harvests caused by favourable weather are also important reasons for
falling cotton. The US proposed discussing how to deal with distortions
throughout the production chain, including subsidies, tariff barriers
and non-tariff barriers on cotton, synthetic fibres and products made
from these.
The EU said that its production and exports are too small to have an
impact on world cotton prices, and that it is changing its programme for
cotton producers. The EU said it supports commercial elements of the
proposal and pledged to contribute to reaching agreement on a solution.
Chairperson Derbez concluded that the issue would be discussed in the
informal meetings of ministers over the coming days.
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