G-33, a group of 42 developing countries, called for fairer global trade in agriculture on Sunday and demanded leeway to protect their staple farm products from subsidised imports from rich countries. The Indonesia-led group is advocating a scheme called Special Products and Special Safeguard Mechanisms (SP-SSM) and want it to be part of the World Trade Organisation.
The scheme aims to protect farmers in G-33 countries from cuts in customs duties and the influx of cheap, heavily subsidised imports from the United States and Europe.
Indonesia's trade minister said the livelihoods of rural farmers in developing countries needed to be protected.
"G-33 stresses the importance of the principle of proportionality in deciding the formula of tariff reduction so that the lowering of tariffs in the developing countries are not as great as what should be implemented by the advanced countries," Mari Pangestu told reporters.
Only 18 countries of the 42-member group sent delegates to Jakarta for the first G-33 ministerial meeting since the collapse of WTO talks in Cancun, Mexico, in 2003, that saw several developing countries slamming agricultural subsidies in the West.
The G-33 has a goal of ensuring issues of food security and rural development become an integral part of the current WTO trade negotiations.
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