CAIRNS GROUP TO DISCUSS DOHA ROUND IN BALI

Jakarta, June 5 (ANTARA) - Ministers and ministerial-level representatives of agricultural produce exporting countries in the Cairns Group will meet in Bali on June 7-9 to discuss the stalled Doha Round of talks on free trade.

"The meeting will be a good start to resume the talks to reduce the differences among members of the World Trade Organization," Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu said here on Friday.

She said the meeting was expected to be able to encourage the resumption of the Doha round of talks to follow up on existing agreements achieved such as on the scrapping of export subsidies starting in 2013.

"Minimally there should be a deal to start negotiations again in line with the agenda and roadmap," she said.

Mari said the meeting which will be attended by the director general of WTOB, Pascal Lamy and the chairman of WTO agricultural negotiations, David Walker, would not touch on the substance of the Doha talks but seek political commitments to continue the negotiations.

The new US Trade Representative, Ron Kirk, would also attend the meeting and this was important in terms of the US commitment to the Doha Round.

"We wish to get clear signals from the US to resume negotiations, starting from the agreement made in December 2008," she said.

Besides the US, the EU, Japan, India and China had also been invited to the meeting as special guests.

The three-day meeting in Bali was also scheduled to discuss the spreading tendency among governments to adopt protectionist policies during the current global economic crisis.

"It is hoped the meeting will strengthen the commitment to preventing protectionism in the agricultural sector," she said.

In conjunction with the ministerial meeting, farmers' organizations from countries in the Cairns Group will also hold a meeting whose results would be submitted to the ministers in the Cairns Group.

The Cairns Group consists of 19 countries whose agricultural produce exports account for 25 percent of the world's agricultural produce exports.

They are Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Uruguay.

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