FACTBOX: Negotiating alliances in the WTO's Doha round

Mon Jul 21, 2008 7:24pm EDT
 
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(Reuters) - Various alliances have formed within the 152 governments negotiating a new global trade pact, which ministers are seeking to push towards conclusion.

Following is a description of the main blocs and their basic positions on the World Trade Organization (WTO) accord known as the Doha round. The approximately 30 ministers meeting in Geneva from Monday will represent these interests.

The groups' members change frequently and their names do not correspond exactly to their ranks -- the G-10 has nine members, the G-20 has 22 members, and the G-33 has 46 members, for example.

CAIRNS GROUP: Agricultural exporters, with low subsidies, seeking radical agricultural reform in both developed and developing markets

-- Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Uruguay

COTTON 4: Cotton producers seeking cuts in U.S. subsidies

-- Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali

GROUP OF 10 (G-10): Food importers stressing the importance of "non-trade concerns" in agriculture, such as environmental issues and rural community development. Often have high protective tariffs

-- Iceland, Israel, Japan, Liechtenstein, Mauritius, Norway, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan

GROUP OF 20 (G-20): Coalition of developing countries taking aim at developed countries' farm subsidies and tariffs

-- Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Cuba, Egypt, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Uruguay, Venezuela, Zimbabwe

GROUP OF 33 (G-33): Developing-country group, including several dependent on subsistence agriculture, focused on securing exceptions to agricultural tariff cuts through special products and the special safeguard mechanism. Also known as the "friends of special products":

-- Antigua, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Botswana, China, Congo, Ivory Coast, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Philippines, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent, Senegal, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Tanzania, Trinidad, Turkey, Uganda, Venezuela, Zambia, Zimbabwe

NAMA ELEVEN: Emerging economies resisting calls to throw open their manufacturing sectors to competition under a deal in manufactured goods, known in WTO parlance as NAMA for "Non-Agricultural Market Access"

-- Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Namibia, Philippines, South Africa, Tunisia and Venezuela

TROPICAL AND ALTERNATIVE PRODUCTS GROUP: Latin American producers wanting faster, better access for their farming exports in foreign markets  Continued...

 

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