"We want to make the Doha Development Agenda a success." For Agriculture European Commissioner Franz Fischler this is Europe's number one objective for the upcoming WTO trade talks in Mexico next week. And to achieve this aim, the EU is 'willing to play ball'. Which begs two questions - is this really true? and if so, are the other 145 countries willing to 'play' too?
Speaking at a press conference this week, Fischler said there were 10 key ingredients to making reform of international farm trade a success.
Firstly, to slash trade distorting domestic farm subsidies. "We already offered to deliver a huge cut in the so called amber box of trade distorting domestic support of 55 per cent," said Fischler. Adding that the recent changes to the Common Agriculture Policy have shifted Europe into "offering a major reduction in the less trade-distorting 'blue box' support that goes far beyond the ambitions of the Uruguay Round".
Secondly, to cut export subsidisation substantially. The EU, said Fischler, will go further and has offered to eliminate export subsidies on certain products of interest to developing countries and substantially reduce the rest.
"Europe has already come a long way in the last 10 years. The proportion of the CAP budget spent on refunds is down from 30 per cent of the EU farm budget in 1993 to less than 9 per cent in 2002. With the June 2003 reform package and the upcoming reforms of the sugar sector, the EU will be able to do even more."
Ingredient number three? Essentially, claims Fischler echoing the EU's stance, to give developing countries a better deal.
"In our joint initiative with the US, a special safeguard is envisaged for developing countries to protect sensitive products from excessive imports. We also propose lower tariff cuts and longer implementation periods for these countries."Discussions next week will soon make clear whether the EU and the US are serious in their initiative.
The fourth ingredient is about being pragmatic, said Fischler, criticising certain developing countries. "If they want to do business, they should come back to mother earth," he commented.
"If I look at the recent extreme proposal co-sponsored by Brazil, China, India and others, I cannot help get the impression that they are circling in a different orbit."
For the commissioner, the other ingredients are composed of opening markets for agricultural imports, and for members to reform farm policy in one direction only - less trade distorsion.
Onlookers may be surprised by Fischler's comments on trade distortion in light of a new report from US think-tank the International Food Policy Research Institute. The group revealed that protectionism and subsidies by industrialised nations cost developing countries about $24 billion (€22bn) annually in lost agricultural and agro-industrial income.
What is more, the report points the finger at the European Union as the greatest culprit of 'trade-distorting measures' that displace agricultural exports from developing countries.
More than half of the displaced exports are caused by the policies from the EU, less than a third are due to US policies, with Japan and other high-income Asian countries responsible for another 10 per cent, claims the report.
Environmental groups are also cynical of the European Union's position. UK-based Friends of the Earth group said this week: "The most devastating impacts [on biological and cultural diversity] would come from agricultural trade agreements, especially if they are based on the recent US-European Union joint proposal for the modalities of agricultural negotiations.
This proposal sets the scene for drastic market liberalisation for agricultural products, but leaves virtually untouched the massive direct and indirect subsidies these trading blocks provide for their own export-oriented farmers," commented the group.
Concluding his talk this week, Fischler called on all camps to maintain a flexible stance at the talks, criticising some for not squaring up to the challenge. "In fact, I have seen no flexibility on the part of those who shout loudest," he criticised.
Fischler's words are an indication that international diplomacy will be stretched to the limits next week. Let's hope our politicians guard their sang froid in Cancun and work towards achieving the common goal of reducing all farm subsidies which distort international trade and harm the interests of developing countries.
As Fischler himself said on Wednesday: "The rest is rhetoric."