Ministers and officials from 19 farm exporting countries plus the US and India met in Indonesia yesterday to give impetus to world trade talks amid the global economic slump.
The Cairns Group meeting, which includes Australia, Brazil and Canada, is expected to call for a fresh start to the Doha Round of world trade talks and condemn rising signs of protectionism.
US Trade Representative Ron Kirk and WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy are also attending the three-day meeting, which is taking place in the luxury beach resort of Nusa Dua on Bali island.
Kirk is scheduled to hold his first bilateral talks with India’s new trade minister, Anand Sharma, today, after disagreements between the two countries over protective tariffs scuppered WTO negotiations in July.
Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean, who will chair the Cairns Group meeting, said the talks were an opportunity to send the new US administration a strong message about the need for open markets.
The Cairns Group has bitterly condemned a new trade war between the US and the EU after Washington reintroduced export subsidies for its dairy industry last month in response to similar moves by Brussels.
“This meeting will send a strong political message on the need to fight protectionism and conclude WTO negotiations,” Crean said in a statement ahead of the talks.
“Now is the time for political engagement if we are going to drive the Doha Round to a successful conclusion. Only concluding the Doha Round can eradicate market-distorting subsidies such as dairy export subsidies that have re-emerged this year,” he said.
Washington said last month it would bring back export incentives for its dairy industry after its international market share was hit by the EU’s move to reintroduce such subsidies.
The moves undermine WTO commitments to eliminate all export subsidies by 2013.
The Cairns Group, which accounts for more than 25 percent of world agricultural exports, advocates deep cuts to all tariffs and the total elimination of export subsidies, saying they threaten economic recovery. The Doha Round of WTO talks, which started at the end of 2001 in the Qatari capital, aims to boost international commerce by removing trade barriers and subsidies.
But a deal has proved elusive so far as countries are reluctant to open up their markets or reduce financial support to farmers.
Disagreements — primarily between India and the US over tariffs — collapsed the last series of negotiations between WTO ministers, plunging the fate of the broader Doha Round into uncertainty.
Representatives from Japan, China and the EU will also attend the Bali meeting.
The Cairns Group is comprised of Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Uruguay.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-Wong tomorrow, which it said would possibly make landfall near central Taiwan. As of 2am yesterday, Fung-Wong was about 1,760km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving west-northwest at 26kph. It is forecast to reach Luzon in the northern Philippines by tomorrow, the CWA said. After entering the South China Sea, Typhoon Fung-Wong is likely to turn northward toward Taiwan, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said, adding that it would likely make landfall near central Taiwan. The CWA expects to issue a land
Taiwan’s exports soared to an all-time high of US$61.8 billion last month, surging 49.7 percent from a year earlier, as the global frenzy for artificial intelligence (AI) applications and new consumer electronics powered shipments of high-tech goods, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. It was the first time exports had exceeded the US$60 billion mark, fueled by the global boom in AI development that has significantly boosted Taiwanese companies across the international supply chain, Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) told a media briefing. “There is a consensus among major AI players that the upcycle is still in its early stage,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it is expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong this afternoon and a land warning tomorrow. As of 1pm, the storm was about 1,070km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, and was moving west-northwest at 28 to 32kph, according to CWA data. The storm had a radius of 250km, with maximum sustained winds of 173kph and gusts reaching 209kph, the CWA added. The storm is forecast to pass near Luzon in the Philippines before entering the South China Sea and potentially turning northward toward Taiwan, the CWA said. CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said
PREPARATION: Ferry lines and flights were canceled ahead of only the second storm to hit the nation in November, while many areas canceled classes and work Authorities yesterday evacuated more than 3,000 people ahead of approaching Tropical Storm Fung-wong, which is expected to make landfall between Kaohsiung and Pingtung County this evening. Fung-wong was yesterday morning downgraded from a typhoon to a tropical storm as it approached the nation’s southwest coast, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, as it issued a land alert for the storm. The alert applies to residents in Tainan, Kaohsiung, Pingtung and Taitung counties, and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春). As of press time last night, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Yilan, Miaoli, Changhua, Yunlin, Pingtung and Penghu counties, as well as Chiayi city and county had
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