Japan’s new food export move gets cool response

New Zealand’s WTO ambassador Crawford Falconer, who chairs the key talks in the Doha round to open up world trade, also said he needed more time to draft a revised negotiating text after further talks on technical issues he is calling for May 8.

Japan, the world’s third biggest food importer, was joined by Switzerland in proposing limits to restrictions on food exports following moves by several countries to ban or tax exports in the face of spiralling food prices.

WTO rules currently allow such restrictions.

Under the Japanese proposal, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, any WTO member planning to ban or restrict food exports would have to first notify the WTO.

Any other WTO member would then be entitled to call for consultations on the proposed measures, and if the consultations did not produce agreement within a set period, the measure would go to a committee of experts for binding arbitration.

The current proposal in the Doha round talks would only require members to notify the WTO of restrictions or bans 90 days after they were imposed. But it would phase out all existing restrictions within one year and limit new ones to 12 months, or 18 with the approval of importers.

“We had a new Japanese paper on the table on export restrictions which got a pretty cool response, particularly from the developing country members, but got some support from some other members,” Falconer said.

Japan’s chief agriculture negotiator, Hidenori Murakami, who told reporters the proposal had met with some support, said it would take into account the food security of both exporters and importers among developing countries.

Prices of food staples such as corn and rice have hit records, sparking hunger, riots and hoarding in poor countries.

The United Nations and the World Bank, warning that the high prices could cause unprecedented hunger and social unrest, set up a task force on Tuesday to tackle the problem.