30 July 2008

Interview - Sky News

COMPERE 1: World trade talks in Geneva have collapsed after China and India failed to compromise on agricultural imports.

COMPERE 2: Developing countries can't seem to agree with developed nations on terms about access to each other's markets.

And joining us now is Trade Minister Simon Crean who is in Geneva watching the proceedings. Simon Crean, thanks so much for your time. This is a big disappointment, especially at a time of global economic uncertainty.

SIMON CREAN: Huge disappointment, Shannon, and worse because we were so close to this settlement. I've been involved in discussions day and night over the last nine days to help try and get this resolved. I know how close it was, I know it was do-able.

Unfortunately there wasn't sufficient political will to make it happen. And I think we pay a big price for that, not just as a country but given the global economic uncertainty, the impact it has on that, the opportunity for real development circumstances and if you think about it, we're just about to get into the climate change discussions.

If we can't resolve trade talks that recognise the balance between developed and developed countries and get stuck on a single issue, we've got to find a better mechanism to take this forward because we made huge progress in this last nine days. The trouble is we just couldn't clinch a deal...

COMPERE 1: So...

CREAN: ..so in the end close enough is not good enough.

COMPERE 1: So what was the final sticking point, especially for China and India then?

CREAN: It was more than China and India. It was - it's an issue called special safeguard mechanism. It's what developing countries need in the event that there are big import surges into their country and they need to protect their agri... their. subsistence agriculture workers. Now this is not just an issue for developed and developing countries.

There are different views in the developing countries depending on whether you're an exporter or an importer. This was at the core of the problem. It was, how do you reconcile these fundamental differences quite apart from what's the mechanism by which you do it.

So this is not just a north-south developed developing divide. This was a rift within the developing countries as well.

Now I know it was capable of being resolved because we got so close, but we didn't get close enough and in the end we didn't have the political will to do it, that's a collective decision this is not a majority vote organisation, it's not like the result of an election where you only need 51 per cent of the vote to carry the day.

This one you need 100 per cent of the vote. We couldn't get it and the fact that we couldn't get it on that issue, even though some more fundamental even more difficult issues we could get agreement on, the great tragedy is we made progress but we didn't clinch the way forward.

COMPERE 2: The stumbling block appears to be farm and industrial trade. What are the concerns there?

CREAN: No I think the stumbling - I don't think that was the stumbling block. I think that we did resolve the differences between agriculture and industrial goods. Had we secured this outcome, Shannon, this would have been a huge benefit to the agricultural sector. Important benefits to parts of the industrial sector, industrial good sector, manufacturing. But also significantly big gains in services.

So for Australia there were significant gains. Not the most we were seeking but significant. What I wanted to do was to lock in those gains and provide the platform from which we could move forward.

We haven't been able to do that but it's not just Australia that suffers. I think global development suffers, I think the undeveloped country, less-developed countries, their opportunities are blocked out and that's not good in a global context either.

COMPERE 1: So if this happens on the issue of trade, what happens with climate change which is more and more for, specially the developing countries but developed as well an economic issue as much as anything else.

CREAN: Sure. But I mean, there are - I mean, on climate change I mean it's not just the environmental imperative, it's the economic opportunities. I mean, if we can open up solutions, green jobs, we open up a whole new range of solutions and that itself is - involves trade.

But what we were dealing with here was another example, not just of the complexity and the detail but the need for us to grapple with this challenge between developed and developing countries to recognise the fact that we do need to recognise that with developed countries they've had significant advantages over a long period of time that developing countries don't think they've had, how do we get the balance right?

How do we get this circumstance in which we're not only advance global economic development but we understand the different demands, the different demands, the different circumstances of developing versus developed countries, that's a huge challenge.

That said, I think we got very close, I really do. I am very pleased, and I am only frustrated now because we haven't succeeded, but I have been very pleased with the progress that we made over the last nine days.

I am just so frustrated at having made that progress, having made all the big advances and dealt with many of the difficult issues, we could not resolve this one and this one ended up being a deal breaker.

COMPERE 1: Disappointing indeed. Simon Crean, we very much appreciate your time, thanks for joining us.

CREAN: Thanks very much Lee, Shannon.

ENDS

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