GATT URUGUAY ROUND (Hansard, 12 December 1988)

§ Lord Young of Graffham

The task of the Mid-Term Meeting which my right honourable friend the Minister of Agriculture and I attended was to consolidate the past two years' work of the Uruguay Round and to lay down guidelines and frameworks for the second half of the negotiation. Substantial progress to this end was made on a number of issues of particular concern to the United Kingdom. Detailed frameworks for further negotiations on liberalisation of trade in services, multilateral tariff reductions and strengthening of GATT procedures, including dispute settlement, were agreed on a provisional basis. There was also agreement to liberalise the import regime for tropical products: the European Community will put in place from 1st January 1989 tariff reductions on tropical products which can be implemented under the Generalised Scheme of References.

Disappointingly, however, there was no agreement on a more detailed framework for negotiations on the reform of agriculture, despite substantial and positive efforts by the European Community, the Cairns Group of agricultural exporting countries and others. The United States insisted on pressing for the total elimination of agricultural support by a time to be agreed. This was not acceptable to the Community, nor was it in the 1986 Punta del Este declaration, 814WA which set the guidelines for the Round. Nor was progress possible in negotiations on international trade in textiles, nor on the better protection of intellectual property. Since in these three cases agreement could not be achieved in Montreal, it was decided to suspend the work there with a view to further negotiation in preparation for a meeting of senior trade policy officials in Geneva early in April. The objective then will be to endorse formally the agreements reached provisionally last week and if possible to establish common ground on the way forward on the three issues in dispute at Montreal.

It is disappointing that for the time being further progress could not be made on agriculture. But it is a suspension rather than a breakdown of negotiation, and over the coming months the Government will continue to work for a positive outcome. In other areas of importance to UK industry and commerce, positive results have been secured. The Government will be working with our partners in the Community to resolve outstanding issues, and to ensure that the gains made at Montreal are consolidated in April and that in the remaining two years of the Uruguay Round continuing progress is made on the full range of issues covered by the negotiation.