The European Commission on Monday called for worldwide farm-trade liberalization, saying WTO members should agree to cut tariffs, slash export subsidies and reduce domestic farm support over the next six to 10 years.
In proposals made as part of the Doha round of trade talks launched last year in November, the commission called for a 36 percent cut in farm import tariffs and said export subsidies should be reduced by 45 percent.
The commission -- the EU's executive arm -- also said it wanted to reduce trade distorting domestic farm support by 55 percent.
Targeting developing nations, which have often complained of protectionist EU farm policies, the commission said rich members of the WTO should agree that "no less than 50 percent" of their imports from developing countries are at zero duty.
It also urged richer nations to give duty-free and quota-free access to all exports from poorer nations.
"Developing countries need not just rhetoric but real benefits from the North," said European Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler.
In a veiled reference to the US, Fischler insisted that "unlike other proposals, our is not tactical."
Food aid given to poor countries should be provided for "well-defined vulnerable groups or in response to well-recognized emergencies and not ... as a surplus disposal mechanism," said the commission.
Referring again to the US, the commission said "some WTO members have used food aid donations more as a production and commercial tool to dispose of surpluses and promote sales in foreign markets than as a development tool."
The EU official also demanded tougher WTO measures to prohibit the misuse of geographical indications or regional trademarks such as "Italian Parma Ham or French Roquefort cheese."
Only countries which have the right to use such geographical indications should be allowed to do so, the commission said.
It suggested that the WTO draw up a list of names currently used by producers other than the right-holders in the country of origin with a view to prohibiting their misleading and unfair use.
The commission also called for tougher measures to protect the rural environment, ensure rural development and said additional costs required to meet higher animal welfare standards should be exempt from moves to slash trade distorting subsidies.
Liberalizing trade in agriculture is one of the toughest issues under discussion in the Geneva-based WTO.
EU farm policies have long been criticized by the US and members of the Cairns Group led by Australia and including Canada and many Latin American and Asian countries. But the EU has long fended off the US attacks as unjustified. Washington's farm trade proposals in the WTO focused on "wrapping more than the content," said Fischler.
A spokesman for US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said the proposal was welcome but "does not embrace fundamental reform in world agricultural trade."
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary