Global Dairy Alliance Seeks Big Doha Outcome

Global Dairy Alliance Seeks Big Doha Outcome

The Global Dairy Alliance meeting in Santiago this week demanded that the Doha Round negotiations deliver real improvements in trade opportunities for world dairy producers.

“This means that fundamental market access reform remains central to a successful WTO Round”, said GDA Chairman Mr Osvaldo Cappellini.

For the Framework Agreement to deliver fully on the Doha Mandate this year’s negotiations must deliver:

• Substantial and immediate improvements in market access.

• Real cuts in trade-distorting domestic support on a product-specific basis. We do not want to see the same old subsidies renamed so that they continue to damage world dairy markets.

• A tariff reduction formula that leads to lower, more uniform tariffs by imposing significantly larger cuts on current high tariffs.

• A tariff cap/ceiling that reduces over time.

• The elimination of all forms of export subsidies within a short time frame.

• Clear and transparent disciplines on subsidies during the transition period to prevent circumvention of obligations.

The GDA will present its case for reform to the Cairns Group meeting in Cartagena later in March. Detailed position papers on these critical issues will be available in the near future on http://www.globaldairyalliance.org.

The GDA speaks for 1.5 million dairy farmers. Mr Cappellini warns that real agri-trade improvements are essential to the social and economic development of a wide range of countries.

“We remain totally committed to the process we started years ago to ensure that the final negotiations deliver substantial short and long term improvements in agricultural market access that countries committed to when launching the Doha Round.”

“In addition to the direct negotiations we are also analysing recent WTO cases to determine their implications for achieving dairy trade reform”.

As part of its efforts to engage with dialogue partners around the world, the GDA meets regularly with the US, Chinese, Indian and African dairy sectors.

Visit www.globaldairyalliance.org for updates

BACKGROUND NOTES

Global Dairy Alliance – Battling the Tariffs

The Global Dairy Alliance includes the dairy industries of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, New Zealand and Uruguay.

The Alliance represents more than 1.5 million dairy farmers, 60 billion litres of milk production annually and a majority of world dairy trade.

The dairy sector is one of the most heavily subsidised and distorted sectors in global agricultural trade. Average government support for dairy production within the OECD is over 46 per cent.

Subsidies, particularly those paid on exports, also heavily influence world dairy prices and the livelihoods of dairy farmers worldwide. Five years after full implementation of the Uruguay Round, the European Union can still spend over 2 Billion Euro annually to subsidize the sale of dairy products into world markets.

Other examples of how some nations limit free market access, depress farmers’ milk prices in other countries, and reduce returns for some of the world's poorest dairy farmers include:

• Dairy tariffs are among the highest in the world, with many tariffs in key developed markets being well over 100%.

• The tariff on butter in Japan is more than 500%.

• Dairy tariffs in Canada are between 200% and 300%.

• EU cheese quotas limit imports to around 100,000 tonnes in a market of 7 million tonnes.

Fortnightly decisions made by EU officials on export subsidies have negative repercussions on the incomes of dairy farmers throughout the world.

The GDA seeks:

• Elimination of all export subsidies within three years.

• Strong disciplines on the use of food aid and all other export competition policies (such as export credits).

• Substantial, progressive improvements in market access for dairy products leading ultimately to the elimination of all dairy product tariffs and tariff quotas.

Progressive elimination of all trade-distorting domestic subsidies in developed countries.

ENDS

© Scoop Media