São Paulo, June 14, 2004 (Agência Brasil) - The world's largest exporters of agricultural products, Brazil, India, Australia, the United States, and the European Union, are closer to cinching a mutual agenda to increase trade in this area. Yesterday (13), in a collective interview at the 11th United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XI), the Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Celso Amorim, considered that "it was a useful discussion, we have chances to advance, but there is effectively a lot of work ahead." According to him, the meeting was "historic" in nature.

Present in Brazil for the meeting are the US trade representative, Robert Zoellick, the Australian Minister of Trade, Mark Vaile, the Indian Minister of Trade, Kamal Nath, and the European Union Commissioner of Foreign Relations, Pascal Lamy. "The fact that we noted sufficient convergence to instruct the technical staff to continue the task with urgency is very important. Bringing together such different countries around a common agenda is something historic," Amorim declared.

The Brazilian chancellor told the press that the Ministers held an intensive meeting that lasted nearly four hours. "We discussed the question of agriculture in the World Trade Organization (WTO), as well as the three pillars of exportation: domestic support, market access, and export subsidies. On each of these matters we had a fruitful conversation, in which we gained a better understanding of each other's concerns, and we agreed that a parallel effort is necessary on the three pillars," he said. Brazil and India, Amorim recalled, are speaking not only for themselves, but as representatives of all the members of the G-20, a group formed by developing countries.

The European representative explained that a negotiation like this one requires, first of all, a political agreement, which exists. But the final stage requires calculations for every item involved. "We are halfway between the politics and the final calculations. We still have to make a joint effort to calculate many things, for each of the three pillars," Lamy commented.

Reporter: André Deak
Translator: David Silberstein