From the Newsroom
São Paulo – Ministers from Brazil, India, the United States, the European Union (EU) and Australia will meet on the 13th, in São Paulo, to discuss an agricultural liberalization accord in the scope of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The meeting will take place on the opening day of the 11th United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) and one day after G-20, also in São Paulo, the financial capital of Brazil.
Brazil and India are members of G-20, a group of developing countries that struggles against agricultural subsidies of rich countries in the WTO. Australia, in turn, presides over the Cairns Group, a block of countries who export agricultural products.
According to information from the Ministry of Agriculture, the meeting could serve to "unblock" some subjects that are hindering negotiations for the formation of an agricultural accord among WTO countries. Negotiations involve the areas of market access, domestic support and subsidies to export.
Those potentially able to "unblock" these matters are the United States and the EU, who provide great quantities of subsidies to their farmers, both in production (domestic support) and in export. The agreement, however, cannot be concluded at the meeting on the 13th, as it needs to be ratified by all 148 WTO members.
In case, however, such an "unblocking" does take place, it could facilitate the negotiations occurring in Geneva, Switzerland, in the second week of July, among all WTO members. The great impasse revolves around the formula for tax barrier reductions and subsidy cuts.
