NZ trade guru wants market access deal on farm produce

The senior diplomat steering talks on agriculture at the World Trade Organisation is pressing key members of the global body meeting this week to make a deal on market access for farm produce, reports news agency AFP.

In an interview with AFP, New Zealand's trade ambassador Tim Groser said that the 32 members gathering on July 12-13 in Dalian, China, for an informal meeting, must give him the tools he needs to broker a deal among all 148 governments in the WTO.

WTO members are trying to strike a deal ahead of a summit in Hong Kong in December, with the goal to complete the Doha Round of trade negotiations in 2006, after four years of stumbling discussions.

"I'm asking the ministers in Dalian to give me the key structure of a market access deal," Groser told the news service. "Will the ministers take those decisions, I don't know."

Market access -- WTO-speak for customs duties and import quotas -- is one of the three "pillars" of farm trade talks which have been inching ahead since the launch of the round in 2001, says AFP in the report.

The other two areas under discussion are export subsidies, which are in the process of being eliminated, and direct aid to farmers, which is meant to be reduced.

Market access is seen as the most complicated area of the farm trade negotiations, which are part of wider talks aiming to liberalise global commerce and give poor countries a boost, in particular by making it easier to sell their goods to rich nations.

Developing countries charge that rich nations are doing too little, according to AFP.

On Wednesday, Groser suspended talks among trade ambassadors in Geneva because they were getting nowhere.

Groser told AFP he was awaiting strong signals from the European Union and United States.

The members set to meet in Dalian are: Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Egypt, the EU, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, Thailand, the US and Zambia.