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FACTBOX-Three "red line" issues in the WTO's Doha round
18 Jul 2008 12:23:24 GMT
 Source: Reuters
GENEVA, July 18 (Reuters) - Trade ministers meeting in Geneva next week will try to broker a deal on cutting the tariffs and subsidies that constrain exported goods.

While most of the focus of the talks will be on those cuts -- which span both agricultural and non-agricultural products -- major parties to the negotiations say a World Trade Organisation (WTO) accord will not come together without adjacent deals in other sensitive areas.

Following are descriptions of the three "red line" issues that stand to colour the make-or-break Doha round push -- bananas, other tropical products and geographical indications:

BANANAS

WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy has proposed a resolution of the long-standing "banana wars" between Latin American producers and the European Union, which has given former European colonies preferential tariff rates for imported fruit.

Ecuador and its allies want the banana issue settled before agreeing to a broader agricultural agreement in the Doha round, but Latin Americans have disagreed over whether Lamy's proposal is acceptable.

Lamy has proposed the EU should make annual cuts to its tariff of 176 euros ($280)/tonne of bananas to reach 116 euros by 2015. In return Latin American governments would sign a "peace clause" dropping lawsuits against the EU over the current arrangements and agreeing not to launch more challenges.

If they do accept it in principle, the banana question would be put to ministers in Geneva who will consider it alongside requests for better treatment for a range of "tropical products" from Latin America in European and other export markets.

TROPICAL PRODUCTS

There are 12 agricultural goods subjected to import tariffs that Latin American producers want to get faster, deeper cuts than other export products, and that African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) producers want to maintain protections on.

The ACP states, mostly former European colonies and among the world's poorest countries, say they actually need tariffs on these products for other countries such as Latin America to be reduced more slowly than otherwise, so that they do not immediately lose the favourable treatment they rely on.

That list of contested "tariff lines" has been whittled down from an original 195. Among the products still under discussion are sugar, rum and fresh melons.

GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS

The European Union is pushing for an extension of "geographical indications", which designate place-names as trademarks for goods such as Champagne and Bordeaux wines, to be folded into any new global trade agreement.

That extension from wines and spirits to foods -- such as Parma ham -- is opposed by Argentina, the United States and others. They say it should stay outside the Doha remit.

But in an unusual alliance, other countries including Brazil, China, Pakistan and Switzerland have suggested twinning an extension of the geographical indications scope with new bio-diversity rules for drugs and other products developed from local ingredients or traditional knowledge.

The biodiversity clause would require goods such as herbal treatments to specify where they were derived from, with the idea of eventually setting up a benefit-sharing scheme for the originating communities -- such as in the Amazon basin.

Ministers will take up both issues next week in conjunction with the push for a basic deal in agriculture and manufactured goods, diplomats say. (Reporting by Laura MacInnis; Editing by Jonathan Lynn)


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