12/13/05 The Hong Kong Ministerial

12/13/05 The Hong Kong Ministerial

Farm and Ranch December 13, 2005 Trade ministers from around the globe are gathered in Hong Kong for a ministerial meeting in the Doha round of world trade talks. No breakthroughs are expected in efforts to reduce trade barriers and increase market access and some have said without a breakthrough in Hong Kong there won't be enough time to negotiate a complex trade agreement before the deadline at the end of 2006. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns doesn't agree. Johanns: "There isn't any doubt about it we can get an agreement done in 2006. Lot of work to be done even after the general framework is put together. But it is still very, very doable." The 2006 deadline might seem arbitrary but U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman points out that the President's trade promotion authority whereby Congress votes on a trade agreement but it has to be up or down with no changes in the agreement, that authority is due to expire in 2007. Portman: "The Administration would hope for renewal but last time it took nine years to renew TPA. So I think it is a risk for us not to complete in 2006 something to be able to send something to the Congress in 2007." So what do Portman and Johanns expect out of the Hong Kong meeting? Portman/Johanns: "We do hope that we can make incremental progress and establish building blocks that would go towards even more progress early in the new year. Hong Kong is a stop on the journey but that the journey will continue." Part of the U.S. proposal in the Doha round is to cut trade distorting agricultural subsidies by sixty percent. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
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