G8: Trade message needs to be told
Cairns Group members urge G8 leaders to show the world they are serious about dealing with the problems of poverty in
developing countries by promoting bold reforms in global agriculture trade.
Cairns Group members welcome calls for the G8 to provide global leadership in the cause of fundamental agricultural
reform, beginning with the abolition of export subsidies, massive trade distorting subsidies and providing genuine new
market access. Unless demonstrable progress is made soon to end the long-standing discrimination against agriculture in
the WTO, the DDA will not be able to deliver on its crucial development goals.
Agriculture often represents between one third and one half of the economic output in developing countries, compared
with 3-5 percent of economic output in industrialised countries. Yet restrictive market access barriers and high
subsidies have for decades compromised the ability of developing country farmers to participate in global agricultural
trade, limiting their incomes and their ability to escape poverty. Protectionist approaches to agriculture will only
continue to depress world prices and lock-out developing countries from vital export markets.
The Cairns Group has pushed long and hard for elimination of all forms of agricultural export subsidies, the
substantial reduction of rich countries' trade distorting domestic support and substantial improvements in market access
for all agricultural goods. If successful, over two-thirds of developing countries' total gains from the Doha Round
would come from such reforms.
This is where the G8 should be directing their efforts. Liberalising agricultural trade according to the World Bank
will lift the incomes of 2.5 billion people in developing countries by about $50 billion and contribute to reducing
poverty.
Cairns Group members believe that a key contribution that G8 leaders can make this week to assist developing countries
on a path to sustainable development will be to support an ambitious outcome in the WTO agriculture negotiations, in
order to deliver the genuine development outcomes promised by the Doha Development Round for the world's poor.
6 July 2005
Australia, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand,
Paraguay, Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Uruguay