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EU, Japan blamed for failed talks
CANBERRA, Australia (Reuters) -- Australia has blamed the European Union and Japan for the failure of World Trade Organization (WTO) members to agree on agricultural trade reform by a March 31 deadline. Australia is a major exporter of farm products and a member of the Cairns Group of countries which favor free trade in agriculture. Trade Minister Mark Vaile also rebuffed an EU challenge within the WTO to Australia's quarantine rules on farm imports, branding the action a "distraction" to turn attention away from Europe's responsibility for blocking broader farm trade reform. Many developing states and other trading nations had threatened to pull out of the Doha round of WTO talks if the 145-member group cannot reach an accord on guidelines for cutting farm subsidies and tariffs by the now expired deadline. "Let us be clear -- the responsibility for this failure lies squarely at the feet of those members, such as the EU and Japan, who are continuing to oppose efforts to bring about genuine reform of agricultural trade," Vaile said in a statement. Last Friday, the Japanese parliament passed legislation that will lift beef import tariffs to 50 percent from next August. Australia strongly opposed the move. Vaile said the European Commission's announcement in Brussels that it was challenging Australia's quarantine system for imports of agricultural products -- set up, the government says, to protect the island continent from disease -- was "questionable." 'Distraction'"It is not surprising that on the same day the deadline...on agriculture was missed as a result of the totally inadequate position taken by the EC, they challenged our quarantine system as a distraction," Vaile said. "If this dispute over our quarantine measures proceeds, we will vigorously defend our system." The European Union said Australia had imposed extremely restrictive conditions for the imports of a range of products, from fruit to pig meat, and was in "flagrant breach" of WTO rules despite its "constant claims to be the only beacon of free agricultural trade." Vaile said the 15-member EU was obviously also worried by Australia's WTO challenge to its sugar regime, launched last year. A string of setbacks and feuds has sparked gloomy forecasts that a September WTO meeting in Cancun, Mexico, could end in disarray instead of putting free trade negotiations on track for conclusion by the current goal of January 2005. Vaile said he would hold talks with key allies in coming weeks, including colleagues in the 18-member Cairns Group of agricultural exporting nations. The EU is under pressure from the United States and the Cairns Group to vastly cut spending on "trade-distorting" farm programs and eliminate export subsidies. The United States is also under pressure to open its farm sector. "We will not sit by and watch the Europeans work up another no-reform proposal that will preserve agricultural protectionism for decade to come," Vaile said. Copyright 2003 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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