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INFORMAL
meetings involving only the Group of Seven (G-7)
countries at the mini-ministerial meeting of the World
Trade Organization (WTO) were assailed at the weekend by
nongovernment organization (NGO) Rice Watch Action
Network (R1).
“This
should not be called a ‘development round’ if only a few
countries would decide on the outcome of a trade deal
that will greatly affect the livelihood of billions of
poor people around the world,” said Jessica
Reyes-Cantos, R1 lead convenor.
Earlier,
another NGO monitoring the trade talks warned that
current efforts to push free trade of fisheries products
imperils the sustainability of fishery resources and
countries with limited biological capacity for renewal.
The Kilusang
Mangingisda, a national federation of 14 fisher
federations, proposed that the WTO exclude fisheries
from its jurisdiction.
Representatives from R1, National Rice Farmers Council,
United Broiler Raisers’ Association and Tambuyog
Development Center are in Geneva monitoring the ongoing
trade talks.
According to sources among the negotiators, the emerging
consensus in the G-7 meeting on Thursday was to limit
the coverage of Special Products to 12 percent of the
total agricultural tariff lines. Of this product
coverage, 5 percent will be exempted from tariff
reduction and the remaining 7 percent will have an
average cut of 11 percent.
The
Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) will be allowed only
if a developing country like the Philippines breaches
140 percent of the previous year’s import volume and
price trigger. The draft modality as of July 10 has
different tiers wherein developing countries can avail
themselves of the SSM remedy when the import or price
trigger is breached, even with as low as 110 percent of
the previous year.
The
maximum remedy was reduced to only 15 percent of the
current bound rate and not the Uruguay Round bound rate,
as proposed by the Group of 33 countries which includes
the Philippines. (Jenny Ng and Jonathan Mayuga) |
