The Grain Growers of Canada are strongly supportive of Canada 's decision to sign on to the framework that was agreed to by the WTO's General Council on July 31, 2004 . We believe that the framework will allow us to accomplish many of our trade goals. Specifically this framework will allow for:
- The negotiation of an end to all forms of export subsidies, including the subsidy elements of export credits and food aid;
- substantial reductions in trade distorting domestic support with the assurances that the highest subsidizers will face the greatest cuts;
- increases in market access for grains, oilseeds, and their value added products;
- a curtailment of the practice of charging higher tariffs on processed products (tariff escalation); and
- better definitions and independent monitoring of programs that are supposed to be non-distorting ("green" programs).
The GGC notes that this framework agreement is not perfect. For example, we would have preferred to see "blue box" provisions eliminated entirely along with more coherent and aggressive guidelines in the area of market access that affect grains and oilseeds. However, despite the imperfections, we support the Government of Canada's decision to use this framework as the basis of future negotiations.
However, this framework agreement is not an end to the WTO negotiations. We must now begin the difficult task of negotiating the specific modalities that will fulfill the WTO mandate. |
