Sutton comments 'part of problem'

Comments by Trade Minister Jim Sutton about the state of international trade talks are contributing to a dumbing down of expectations, says Wellington Regional Chamber of Commerce chief executive Charles Finny.

Finny, previously a senior official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, was last month accused of "living on some other planet" by Sutton.

While welcoming progress made at the Hong Kong World Trade Organisation ministers' meeting, Finny said no new market opportunities and no improvements to market access appeared in prospect.

"To criticise the talks on that ground is really scraping the bottom of the barrel," Sutton responded. "It's like criticising the moon for only coming up once a day."

In contrast, the minister described as a "stunning result" the interim deal announced after the meeting in December to end farm export subsidies by 2013 and open rich-country markets a bit wider to the world's poorest nations.

In an article on the Tech Central Station website, Finny agreed the elimination of agricultural product export subsidies by 2013 would be a "stunning result".

"Unfortunately, we haven't quite achieved this goal. When reading the fine print, it is clear the EU has ample room to withdraw from this commitment at a number of points in 2006," Finny said.

He agreed with comments on the "dumbing down" of expectations that was now happening with the WTO. "And Minister Sutton's comments are part of the problem."

Hong Kong had put the WTO talks back on track but much more needed to be done to achieve a good outcome.

"Such an outcome is not going to be achieved if we focus on the dumbing down of expectations and talking up what is on the table so far," Finny said.

He suspected Sutton was reacting to media versions of his comments when the minister made the "stinging attack" on him, rather than on his actual words.

He doubted Sutton would have made the comments had he read the remarks praising the minister and his team for the progress achieved on agricultural export subsidies in Hong Kong.

If good commitments on agricultural market access were wanted from the EU, some good commitments would have to be offered on non-agricultural product market access.

A good outcome on services would be positive for continuing growth in the global economy and would increase the chances of the EU being willing to buy into a good outcome on agriculture.

- NZPA