Cairns Group Farm Leaders’ Communiqué does not reflect CFA’s balanced approach to trade

June 9, 2009--Hoping to make positive progress in the ongoing debate on how to move the Doha Development Round forward, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture was unable to fully endorse the final communiqué coming from the Cairns Group Farm Leaders (CGFL) meeting, held in Bali, Indonesia, on June 7-9, 2009.

The final communiqué, presented to the Cairns Group Ministers, did express the farm leaders continued support to reignite the WTO Doha Development Round in the interests of farmers, but failed to echo the fair and equitable trade approach the CFA advocated for in the meeting, or recognize the need for continued improvements to the December 2008 Modalities text. As a result, the CFA did not fully endorse the text.

“While we were a strong participant at this meeting, the CFA was not entirely comfortable with the final Communiqué, as we had hoped for a more balanced approach,” said Pellerin. “Canada is conscious of its diverse needs within the agricultural community to gain further market access abroad while serving our domestic market within Canada.”

In Bali, Pellerin took the opportunity to share CFA’s concerns when the farm leaders met with the Ministers on June 8. He also made CFA’s views known in meetings with Pascal Lamy, Director General of the WTO, the Canadian Government’s trade negotiating team, and several trade ambassadors, including a guest delegation from the US.

“Although the latest December 2008 Modalities on the Doha Round showed some improvement in the right direction, the CFA sees an opportunity for greater improvement on that text,” added Pellerin. “The Government of Canada’s trade position has traditionally been in alignment with that of the CFA and we continue to support the Canadian Government and its negotiators in pushing for the adoption of this balanced position in this round of WTO negotiations.”

The objective of the meeting was to reinforce key concerns within this forum and to ensure that agriculture maintains a strong position on the multilateral trade agenda. The Canadian government is a member of the Cairns Group. Only six of the 19 Cairns Group countries attended the Farm Leaders meeting, including: Indonesia, Australia, South Africa, Paraguay, Canada and New Zealand. The CFA was disappointed that more countries were not represented.