Sharp divisions pitting the EU and Japan against the US and major agricultural exporting nations over the liberalization of trade in farm products are expected to dominate an informal WTO ministerial meeting here, according to experts.
Trade ministers from 25 WTO member states will meet from tomorrow to Sunday.
They will discuss progress on the latest round of WTO negotiations which started in Doha in November 2001, and to prepare for the meeting of 145 WTO members in Cancun, Mexico, in September.
The reduction of import tariffs, export subsidies, domestic aid for agricultural products and access to developed markets for developing nations' products will be high on the agenda.
The hope is to reduce divisions ahead of the March 31 deadline for establishing the framework to be followed during negotiations which open in the spring.
A new element in the equation since the last informal meeting in Sydney in November is that the EU, which had refused to reveal its hand, will set out specific targets, according to European farm-sector analysts in Tokyo.
In December, the EU proposed an average tariff reduction of 36 percent on farm products with a minimum reduction of 15 percent per tariff line. The EU also proposed lowering state aid for domestic agricultural products by 55 percent and cutting export subsidies by 45 percent.
The EU proposal also provides specific measures to benefit developing countries, in particular the removal of tariffs and quotas for agricultural exports from least developed countries. It recommends an exemption for at least 50 percent of imports from other developing countries.
Japan claims to share the same goals.
"Our country's position is basically the same as that of the EU but there are some differences on certain points," states an official document explaining Tokyo's position.
The Cairns group of 17 major agricultural exporting countries, as well as the US, are demanding that a 25 percent tariff ceiling be imposed regardless of the product, however.
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