Developing countries call for lower cuts in farm tariffs

20 June, 2006

Several developing countries have argued that they should not be obliged to undertake significant tariff reductions in agriculture, and advocated that the rates of cuts in the formula should be lower than those proposed by the Group of 20.

They raised serious concerns with the reference paper on possible modalities for market access (issued by the chairperson of the agriculture negotiations) on Friday (16 June) at the final session of the WTO's agriculture consultations last week.

As Ambassador Crawford