ANGARA URGES RESTART OF DOHA TALKS

Senator Edgardo J. Angara today said the developing countries should take the major initiatives to restart the stalled trade liberalization talks by slashing down agricultural subsidies and by easing the tariff and non-tariff barriers they have imposed to restrict the entry of agricultural products from developing countries into their markets.

It is now the call of the developed countries. Countries such as the Philippines have been opening their markets oftentimes recklessly and to a level that hurts their agricultural producers, said Angara , whose term as agriculture secretary was marked by his effort to open up markets that have restricted the entry of Philippine agricultural exports.

Angara was referring to the stalled Doha Round of talks, which started in Doha , Qatar in 2001 with the hope of resolving unresolved and contentious trade issues, mostly on agriculture. The World Trade Organization started the talks through a ministerial meeting in that emirate city.

Angara said that the developed economies not only pamper their farmers with subsidies estimated at US$1 billion a day . They also restrict the entry of agricultural products from developing countries through tariff and non-tariff barriers, he added.

Angara said that the United States , Japan and the member-countries of the European Union should present an acceptable level of subsidy reduction and unless that happens, there would be no incentive to restart the stalled talks.

Three previous effort to revive the talks one in Mexico, one in Hong Kong and one in Geneva have failed ,said Angara, because there was no firm consensus on the level of subsidy-slashing.

The tariff barriers of the developed economies have also worked against generating support for the stalled talks from developing countries , said Angara .

On top of the tariff barriers are quarantine and phyto-sanitary requirements which are most often invoked unilaterally just to protect the developing countries markets from products coming in from developed economies, he said.

The spirit of fair trade should translate into real concessions to the developed economies who are weighed down by subsidies and barriers in the agriculture trade, said Angara .

Angara said that what is needed is fair trade injected into the whole effort of free trade.

Once we shatter the barriers imposed by unfair trade, the talks can begin and will succeed , he said.