Lin Yi-fu is ready to travel to Mexico for Cancun talks

`For its part, Taiwan is very concerned about agricultural tariffs and subsidies, as well as the rights of new members in the agricultural negotiations.'

Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Yi-fu (林義夫) is scheduled to depart for Mexico today to take part in the Fifth Ministerial Conference of the WTO, set for Sept. 10 to Sept. 14 in the country's eastern beach resort city of Cancun.

The Cancun meeting will be the nation's first multilateral talks as a WTO member after it was admitted into the global trade organization in January last year.

Leading 34-member delegation, Lin is expected to make a formal announcement Sept. 11 on Taiwan's economic and trade policies. Priorities for the nation at the Cancun meeting include market access issues, liberalization in the services sector, trade safeguards such as anti-dumping measures and agricultural subsidies, according to ministry officials.

The new round of WTO talks are expected to focus on eight major areas: agriculture, the service industry, access to non-agricultural markets, two-way trade rules, trade and development, trade and the environment, solutions to disputes and intellectual property rights.

But talks are stalled over conditions for progressively reducing export subsidies for agriculture and access to markets, key issues for poor countries concerned over their ability to compete in the global marketplace.

Nevertheless, Cancun is seen as one of the last chances to kickstart such talks, which have stalled since their launch in 2001 in Doha, Qatar. World trade ministers had agreed in Doha in November 2001 that a final agreement should lower all forms of agricultural export subsidies with a view to eventually phasing them out.

For its part, Taiwan is very concerned about agricultural tariffs and subsidies, as well as the rights of new members in the agricultural negotiations, which will be high on the agenda at the conference, Council of Agriculture Chairman Lee Chin-long (李金龍) said over the weekend in a statement.

Lee agricultural tariffs and subsidies remain the key issues for the Cancun meeting and any outcome of the upcoming negotiations is expected to have a significant impact on Taiwan's small-farm economy.

Therefore, Taiwan has been working with several countries such as Japan, Switzerland, South Korea, Norway, Iceland, Israel and Bulgaria to forge a common position on agricultural trade in the upcoming meeting, Lee said.

Stressing there's no single solution that can fit all members, Lee said the farm trade rules should be more flexible and linked to other non-trade concerns such as food safety, rural development and environmental protection.

Apart engaging in a multi-lateral WTO deal, Taiwan will continue to pursue bilateral trade talks with its trading partners from 20 countries, including Austria, Australia, various EU countries, Mexico, Russia and Thailand, the ministry officials said.

The delegation -- which will also include Taiwan's permanent representative to the WTO, Yen Ching-chang (顏慶章), Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘), Bureau of Foreign Trade Director-General Huang Chih-peng (黃志鵬) and Senior Advisor to the National Security Council Lai Hsing-yuan (賴幸媛) -- is expected to return to Taiwan Sept 17.