Embassy of the United States

USA and the WTO

March Date Suggested by U.S. for Next WTO Negotiations Meeting  USTR Portman says resolving agriculture market access issue remains crucial By Bruce Odessey Washington File Staff Writer Washington -- U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman suggests March 31 as a date for the next big meeting to push for quick progress in the long-stalled World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations. Portman made the remarks at a December 14 press conference in Hong Kong during the WTO ministerial meeting, which is scheduled to end December 18. "If we cannot make all the progress we had hoped for here in Hong Kong -- and I'm afraid that we won't -- I feel strongly we should set a date before we leave here and put a work plan in place to be sure that we don't take the pressure off after Hong Kong," he said. A meeting at WTO headquarters in Geneva would be preferable to another ministerial, the trade representative said. Concluding the negotiations by the end of 2006 with a robust agreement for opening markets is crucial, Portman said, not only to achieve benefits as soon as possible for the world economy but also to give the U.S. Congress time to consider an agreement before the U.S. trade negotiating mandate expires mid-2007. Expanding market access in agriculture, where the world's highest tariffs remain, would result in the biggest economic gains for all countries from the negotiations, formally called the Doha Development Agenda, he said. "Unless we can see market access in agriculture, the key to unlocking the agriculture issue, I don't think we'll make progress in the other areas" of reducing tariffs on industrial goods and opening markets in services, Portman said.  "That's why it's so important that all parties come forward with a commitment to meet not the U.S. demands, but the Doha requirement." The Doha negotiations have languished almost since they were launched in 2001, blocked by disagreements on the politically sensitive agricultural issues.  The agriculture negotiations are organized around three main issues, called pillars.  On one issue, elimination of export subsidies, there is already agreement except for setting a deadline. "We should set a date. We should set it here in Hong Kong," Portman said. "It's been over a year since we decided that these subsides are going to be eliminated, and all we need is the date." He said the United States, the United Kingdom and groups of developing countries have all proposed 2010 for elimination.  According to published reports, that date has been resisted by the European Union (EU), which accounts for about 90 percent of all export subsidies, and Switzerland. The two other agriculture pillars concern domestic support payments for farmers in the developed countries and tariffs.  In October, the United States proposed to reduce tariffs sharply and eventually eliminate domestic support.  In the view of the United States and most other WTO members, the subsequent EU proposal offers little or no real additional market access. (See related article.) A transcript of Portman’s press conference is available on the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Web site. For ongoing coverage of the WTO talks in Hong Kong, see WTO Hong Kong Ministerial Meeting.   (The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)