Australian Trade MinisterJohn Dawkins said if the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT) does not give high priority to agricultural trade reform
it will be neglecting the area of greatest crisis.
    In a statement to the informal GATT trade ministers
conference here he said agriculture is a problem which involves
all countries and seriously affects the debt servicing
abilities of a number of developing countries.
     He said major countries should be showing leadership on
this problem.
    "We will be giving close attention to the processes in the
OECD (Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development) and
elsewhere leading to the Venice economic summit where we will
be looking to the participants to adopt a strong commitment to
agricultural trade reform," Dawkins said.
    The Venice summit is scheduled for June.
    He said Australia's interests in the Uruguay Round, the
eighth under the GATT, are wide ranging. Dawkins said he sees
the round as providing a timely opportunity to secure further
meaningful trade liberalisation in all sectors and to restore
confidence in the multilateral system.
    Dawkins said initial meetings of the negotiating groups
established in Geneva after the GATT declaration last September
in Punta del Este, Uruguay, have made a reasonable start, but
it is vital that trade ministers maintain the pressure on these
processes.
    "We must see that the commitments made at Punta del Este on
standstill and rollback are carried into practice."
    The standstill and rollback of protection offers the global
trading system a chance to hold and wind back protection during
the negotiations which are expected to last up to four years,
he said.
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