Doha work marches on under Bush administration

Jason Vance

FEEDSTUFFS

11/17/2008

Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer described himself as an eternal optimist to a group of reporters last week, but says he is very confident that the Doha Round of global trade talks will be completed.

"As the global marketplace is unfolding, as we're seeing the economies emerge, as we're seeing the increased consumption, as we're seeing hunger being a driving factor; the moving of our agriculture goods across borders in a free and fair manner is becoming more and more important everyday," Schafer said. "That is driving a lot of the Doha Round and we are nearing completion of the tricky agriculture issues."

USDA Chief Economist Joe Glauber, who is also the main agriculture negotiator, has made several trips to Geneva to work on agriculture issues and Schafer says that Glauber has reported progress after each trip.

The negotiations have been ongoing for seven years now and negotiators were close in July before the ministerial meeting in Geneva broke down. Differences of opinion between World Trade Organization member nations caused the meltdown, but Schafer says there has been a breakthrough on that front as Brazil last week has come on board.

"They're saying we need to push forward, we need to get this done, we hope to get it done by the end of this administration," Schafer says. "I don't know whether that's possible or not, that may be a little more optimistic than even I can do, but I do think the conditions are such to where I think people are very serious about getting this done, and I do predict we will see a completion of the Doha Round."

Leaders of several nations were in Washington D.C. over the weekend for a summit on the Doha Round, and President Bush urged all nation's to pledge to conclude a framework this year that leads to a successful Doha agreement.

"We agreed that this undertaking is too large to be accomplished in a single session," Bush said. "The issues are too complex; the problem is too significant to try to solve or to come up with reasonable recommendations in just one meeting so the summit will be the first in a series of meetings."

Jason Vance is E-Content Editor for Farm Futures, a Feedstuffs' sister publication.

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