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.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS