PRESS RELEASE 
PRESS/379 
4 June 2004 
 
(04-2386) 
AGRICULTURE NEGOTIATIONS 
Supachai commends negotiator s, urges more progress 
Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi today commended negotiators for their success in 
narrowing differences in critical agriculture negotiations this week, but urged them to make every 
effort to build on this progress and cautioned that time is rapidly running out to achieve a 
framework agreement in farm trade by the end of July.  
The Director-General praised governments for working hard to find common ground on the key 
issues of further opening markets and reducing  trade distorting subsidies while developing 
mechanisms to address the political sensitivities that confront WTO member governments. 
 
In the past week, three new negotiating papers (from the Group of 20, the Group of 10 and the 
Group of 33) have been put forward by delegations seeking to bridge differences at the negotiating 
table. Moreover, European Union Trade Commissio ner Pascal Lamy and Farm Commissioner Franz 
Fischler recently sent a letter to all WTO trade ministers promising to phase out farm export subsidies provided other forms of subsidized export competition were also eliminated and that 
there is an acceptable outcome on market access and domestic support. 
 Director-General Supachai said these contributions, together with the productive work of ministers 
in a number of recent forums had improved the prospects for achieving a package of negotiating 
results in agriculture and other areas by the end of July.  
Director-General Supachai stressed it was essentia l to achieve the collective goal of reaching a 
framework by the end of July if the broad-base d Doha Development Agenda round of trade talks 
was to succeed. 
 
The framework, he said, does not represent an en d to the negotiations but would set the stage for 
fleshing out the details of a  final agreement. Failure to agree on the framework would open the 
possibility that the significant gains achieved in recent months could be lost.  
 “It is vital that WTO member governments consolidate these gains and establish a foundation on 
which we can advance the Doha negotiations. The long-held objectives of eliminating all forms of 
agriculture export subsidies and substantially reducing all forms of trade distorting farm support are not far from our grasp. The possibility of ga ining greater market access for farm exporters is 
obtainable. And the willingness of governments to recognize significant sensitivities of their trading 
partners has greatly improved the prospects for success. But we are not there yet. Much work remains to be done between now and the end of July  and because of the central role of agriculture 
in the Doha negotiations, success here will undoubtedly bring success in other key areas of our PRESS/379 
Page 2 of 2 
 
 work. I urge all governments to make every effort to seek compromise in the few remaining weeks 
ahead,” the Director-General said. 
More on the WTO website: 
Agriculture negotiations: http://www.wto.org/english/tr atop_e/agric_e/negoti_e.htm  
Explanation: http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/a gric_e/negs_bkgrnd 00_contents_e.htm  
 
 
END