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Government of Canada Continues to Stand up for Canadian Agriculture at WTO
OTTAWA, ONTARIO - (Marketwire - Feb. 8, 2008) - The Honourable Gerry Ritz, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board, today issued the following statement in response to the release of a revised draft modalities text on agriculture by Crawford Falconer, Chair of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agriculture negotiations.
"With this text, the Chair has set out his own ideas and proposals on where the middle ground lies regarding commitments on agriculture. While the text does not reflect a consensus among WTO Members, it gives us something to react to in our efforts to advance the talks in Geneva.
"Canada welcomes many of the ideas raised by the Chair. It's very clear that there are still important issues to resolve, but we are seeing progress toward objectives that are important for Canada, particularly our producers and exporters - including significant reductions in trade-distorting domestic support, improvements to market access, and the elimination of all forms of export subsidies.
"At the same time, Canada continues to have very significant concerns with the ideas in the text on sensitive products. The ideas outlined in this paper are not consistent with Canada's firm position on this issue.
"I have written to Mr. Falconer in support of his latest efforts to advance the negotiations. At the same time, I have strongly re-stated this Government's unwavering support for supply management. Canada maintains its firm opposition to any tariff cuts or tariff quota expansion for sensitive products. This represents a fundamental element of Canada's negotiating position.
"The Government of Canada continues to seek an ambitious outcome to the WTO negotiations that benefits Canada's entire agriculture sector, including both supply-managed and export-oriented industries. We will continue to forcefully advance all of Canada's objectives in Geneva, as the negotiations move forward."
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