Annex
FOOD AND DRINK FEDERATION
PRIORITY OBJECTIVES FOR THE WTO MILLENNIUM
ROUND
1. INCREASE THE
ACCESS FOR
MANUFACTURED FOOD
PRODUCTS TO
THIRD COUNTRY
MARKETS
Market access would be increased by:
— Further reducing third countries'
operational tariffs, concentrating on the most distorting.
— Increasing "percentage market
access" agreements granted by third countries.
— Assimilating small volume tariff
rate quotas (TRQs) into general tariff reductions, thus achieving
simplification.
— Agreeing rules to prevent food specific
non-tariff barriers (to be addressed in the first instance under
the SPS—sanitary and phytosanitary measures—code).
— Ensuring that the accession of significant
new countries toWTO is based on liberal trading, not political
grounds.
FDF stresses that a key objective for the Round
should be further reductions in tariff protection for value added
food products. Solutions such as a "stand-still" or
even reversal of liberalisation should be avoided. The cost of
reducing barriers to exports to third country markets may be to
reduce the barriers against imports from third countries. The
outcome must ensure that the incentive to process food and therefore
add value within the EU is maintained.
This will enhance the existing fast growth in
EU exports of processed/value-added foods:
Growth in value of EU 12 exports 1988-97
Agricultural commodities: +70 per cent
Processed food products: +140 per cent
Source: European Commission
Increased trade in added value processed food
is expected to reach 75 per cent of global agricultural trade
by 2000.
In the decade to 1996, the global market for
these products grew as an additional 500 million people moved
up to enjoy disposable income.
Source: FAO/OECD
Exports will increasingly offer new sources
of growth for food and beverage companies.
2. NEGOTIATE
SOUND STANDARDS
UNDERPINNING WORLD
TRADE
The SPS clause should be strengthened by making
the required underpinning of "sound science" more explicit
and clarifying the links between the WTO, Codex Alimentarius,
Zoonotics and Plant Protection bodies.
WTO members should agree to respect environmental,
animal welfare and social standards, seeking comparable conditions
of production.
3. MAINTAIN THE
COMPETITIVENESS OF
EU MANUFACTURED FOOD
PRODUCTS
FDF continues to support equitable liberalisation
of world trade. There must be close relationships between raw
materials (from either inside or outside the EU) and value added
food products, thus ensuring that the EU food industry remains
competitive both inside and out. So long as EU prices for agricultural
commodities are above the world level, restitutions are essential
to achieve competitively priced exports. The EU should not therefore
accept any further commitment to cut export refund expenditure
for Non-Annex I products, either before there is a correlated
reduction in the price of raw materials internally (through further
CAP reform), or externally before the use of measures having an
equivalent effect to export refunds (such as export credits) have
been controlled.
MEANS TO
ACHIEVE THE
KEY OBJECTIVES
Achieving the FDF's objectives assumes that:
1. There is substantial reform of agricultural
policies which generate protection, including the Common Agricultural
Policy.
2. Manufactured food products will be treated
by the WTO as separate from, although closely allied to the agricultural
commodities which are their raw materials.
3. There will be regular consultation between
the EU negotiators and the food industry during the Round.
4. All contracting parties respect the engagements
made in the WTO negotiations.
The food and drink manufacturing industry is
the largest single manufacturing sector in the UK, employing over
500,000 people. Its annual turnover is some £66 billion.
The industry purchases some 70 per cent of UK agricultural produce.
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