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AUSTRALIAN HIGH COMMISSION
OTTAWA
MEDIA RELEASE
WTO NEGOTIATIONS – CAIRNS GROUP MEETING
1 December 2009
Ministers from the Cairns Group of fair agricultural trading nations* met in Geneva on 30 November and published a communique with the following key points:
• agreement on the need for an ambitious and balanced outcome to the Doha Round of WTO negotiations in 2010.
• reiterated that a final outcome from the Round must include a major package of reforms to agricultural trade, which continues to be highly distorted. Such a package must:
- substantially increase market access opportunities
- substantially reduce trade-distorting domestic support, and
- eliminate export subsidies in 2013.
• the ministers agreed that all agricultural producers will benefit from such an outcome, including low income producers in developing countries.
• political will and multilateral engagement are vital if the Round is to be concluded in 2010; a key first step will be the completion of agriculture negotiating modalities by early 2010 which would set the scene for a WTO ministerial in the early part of the year to take the decisions needed to bring the Round to a conclusion.
The full text of the Cairns Group communique is available at: www.cairnsgroup.org
*The members of the Cairns Group are: Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Uruguay.