Fed: Govt optimistic on trade future

AAP General News (Australia)
12-06-1999
Fed: Govt optimistic on trade future

By Linda McSweeny

CANBERRA, Dec 6 AAP - Trade Minister Mark Vaile today admitted he had been overly ambitious
about the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks in Seattle.

The talks, plagued by protests from environment and labour groups, were suspended on
Friday after a failure to reach agreement on the future of world trade and a new round
of talks.

"Obviously we are disappointed that the ministerial conference in Seattle last week
didn't achieve its goal of launching a round," Mr Vaile said today after returning from
Seattle.

But he expected burgeoning trade prospects to eventually result despite the European
Union's (EU) opposition to liberalisation.

The talks should have focused on launching a broad-based round of negotiations but
were complicated by the EU and US attempts to introduce issues such as competition, investment
and labour standards, he said.

"These are the issues that caused the ministerial conference not to be able to achieve
that outcome of launching a round, not necessarily the impact of the demonstrations in
Seattle, nor the negotiations on agriculture," Mr Vaile said.

Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson and Mr Vaile agreed there was a lack of US leadership
at the talks.

But no round of talks was better than a bad round.

"I said before I left Australia we would not be launching a new round at any cost,"

Mr Vaile said.

"We wanted to see substantial gains in terms of the agenda for agriculture so we have
achieved that.

"We know what most of the countries will agree to on agriculture and there were significant
gains as far as Australia is concerned."

Local farmers and the commodities sector remain sceptical of benefits and are urging
the government to walk the tough road ahead.

The Grains Council of Australia predicted the road to freer trade could be blocked
for another 50 years, given the attitude of the EU.

But the federal opposition said the news was not all bad and future trade talks could
deliver real benefits to the community in welfare, greater market access, higher wages
and cheaper products.

Opposition Leader Kim Beazley urged the government to renew its push to deliver more
jobs to Australia via trade.

"We have got to do what we can to get it back on track and we'll be pressing the government
to do so," Mr Beazley told reporters.

AAP lm/mfh/was/de u

KEYWORD: WTO AUST NIGHTLEAD

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