Statement by Mr Paul Neville MP, Parliamentary Adviser to the Permanent Mission of Australia, to the United Nations Second Committee regarding International Trade and Development, delivered on 30 October 2009.
(as delivered)
It is a great privilege that I address you today on behalf of Australia, Chair of the Cairns Group and long standing advocate of trade reform.
Australia is committed to ensuring that economic development and the benefits that flow from it are shared across humanity. Trade liberalisation through the WTO is one of the best means of achieving this. Trade reform has the capacity to deliver developing countries a better deal in world trade, promote sustainable development and eradicate poverty.
This statement comes at a pivotal moment in the WTO Doha Round agriculture negotiations. There is intensive work underway in Geneva and we have reached the point where all Members, particularly those with the highest levels of domestic support and protection, need to show greater flexibility. The opportunity represented by the Doha Round is simply too important to be lost. This is particularly important in light of the Global Financial Crisis – trade is recognised as an economic stimulus. History shows world trade has grown three times faster than world output and each successful trade round has enhanced the multiplier effect. Concluding Doha would also be important insurance against protectionism. Australia’s Productivity Commission has just released analysis showing that global output would fall nearly two per cent, worth US$1 trillion, if WTO Members increased their applied tariffs to the maximum currently permitted under WTO rules.
Failure to conclude the Doha Round would represent a major blow for development, for agricultural trade reform and for the multilateral trading system. An undistorted, smoothly functioning global trading system is a key ingredient to lifting millions of people out of poverty. Australia deeply regrets that developing countries are still disadvantaged by high levels of subsidies in developed country markets and face significant market access restrictions, which compromise their ability to participate in global agricultural trade, limiting their incomes and their ability to escape poverty.
Australia has strongly supported developing countries’ interests in the Round. Through the Cairns Group we have worked closely with developing countries to secure reform of trade and agriculture, upon which developing countries still overwhelmingly depend. Addressing the needs of developing countries through appropriate Special and Differential Treatment is also critical. By translating this principle into practical provisions consistent with the overall reform agenda, the WTO will be able to continue to support the economic development needs, including technical assistance requirements, of developing countries.
Australia’s aid program recognises the strong link between trade reform and economic development. Our support for ‘Aid for Trade’ has steadily risen in recent years, reaching $400 million in 2009-10. Australia has also more than doubled our annual contribution to WTO trust funds that help developing countries participate more effectively in the Doha negotiations and benefit from the international trading system. Australia has also provided duty and quota-free access to all Least Developed Countries since 2003.
Political will to re-engage and conclude the Round has been generated throughout 2009, commencing with the Cairns Group Ministerial Meeting in Bali. This has been followed by meetings in Paris, Singapore, Bangkok and New Delhi. The G20 Leaders Summit in Pittsburgh and G8 Leaders meeting in L’Aquila resulted in unanimous support for a new and broad-based commitment to intensifying negotiations to conclude the Doha Round in 2010 – a commitment to focus not only on the agriculture and NAMA issues, but also to progress other Doha issues, such as services, rules and trade facilitation.
Ladies and Gentlemen
The political will needs to be translated into action in Geneva, with progress required before the 7th WTO Ministerial Conference at the end of November. Negotiations in coming weeks need to focus on bridging the gaps, particularly in Agriculture and NAMA, otherwise concluding the Round in 2010 will become difficult.
Australia, along with the rest of the Cairns Group, continues to emphasise that trade-distorting support, export subsidies and market access barriers combine to block the contribution that agricultural trade can make to economic development, and thus contribute directly to the continued impoverishment of developing countries.
As we enter the end game phase of the negotiations, we will continue to pursue outcomes that will benefit developing countries, especially in agriculture. Striving to achieve these reforms is hard work, but Australia as Chair of the Cairns Group has never shied away from doing more than its share of heavy lifting to get a fair outcome on agriculture. As this work moves towards a critical juncture, we must all now play our part in bringing the negotiations to a close in a manner that genuinely delivers on the development promise of the Round.
Thank you.