[asia-apec 1509] Newsroom.co.nz - Mike Moore on Ag Trade Lib

[APEC Monitoring Group]

Ag Still Trade Agreement Bugbear: Moore
Staff Reporter Patric Lane 10/08/00 13:24:00

Mike Moore hopes to see a new round of multilateral trade agreements
launched during his time at the helm of the World Trade Organisation, but
admits agriculture remains a sticking point.


Mr Moore, director-general of the WTO and a former New Zealand Prime
Minister, is in New Zealand on an official visit to update the Government
and other political leaders on progress in Geneva.


He said negotiations were underway in a whole series of areas, including
agriculture and services.


“We now have a vehicle, we are underway now, seeing what we can do to
redress what some claim are the imbalances without renegotiating the whole
of the Uruguay round,” he said.


But he acknowledged that old differences still remained, and that
agriculture was still one of the most difficult subjects.


“No matter what you talk about in the New World, in the knowledge economy,
you come back so frequently to the basic problems of agriculture and
textiles,” he said.


Despite previous failures to launch trade rounds, Mr Moore said he hoped the
new round would be launched within his three-year term, though it would
depend on flexibility from individual countries.


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