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Taiwan `regrets' collapse of WTO talks: delegation

The Taiwan delegation to the Fifth WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancun said Sunday that it regretted the collapse of talks that day, although it had earlier vowed to fight against an agricultural draft pact at the conference, claiming the pact is harmful to Taiwan's farmers.

An agricultural official on the Taiwan delegation said in private that the failure of the conference is a setback for the WTO's goal of globalization but will save Taiwan's agriculture from a heavy blow.

In order to enter the WTO, Taiwan committed to opening its market to foreign agriculture products at the 2001 WTO conference in Doha, Qatar, and is still struggling to meet its obligations in this regard.

The country would have difficulty making any new promises, the official said.

Taiwan is gearing up to upgrade its agriculture, which is at a critical period of transformation, and the longer the time for adjustment the better, the official said.

Compared with agriculture, Taiwan's industry is in a much stronger position and will not be affected by the failure of the WTO conference in Cancun in any way, according to Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Yi-fu (林義夫), who headed the Taiwan delegation at the conference.

Taiwan wants to preserve the right to impose high customs duties on certain products and has deemed "unacceptable" a draft WTO text that limits the number of such goods, members of the Taiwanese delegation at the WTO Cancun conference said on Sunday.

Council of Agriculture Chairman Wang Ming-lai (王明來) noted that while the text allows certain countries to preserve high tariffs on some products it also attaches conditions.

"We find that unacceptable," he told a press conference. "There are certain conditions attached. What we need is more flexibility. The text is not flexible enough for us to accept it."

Taiwan has joined around a dozen other net food importers in seeking authorization to maintain selected high tariff rates, along with Japan, South Korea and Switzerland.

The nation's agriculture sector is undertaking a transformation and is expected to have more difficuties in the initial stage.

The next five years will be a critical period for the industry and it would be good for us if the time for adjustment can be longer, said Council of Agriculture Chairman Lee Chin-long (李金龍).
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