RESTRICTED
WORLD TRADE G/C/COM/1
23June1995
ORGANIZATION(95-1715)
Original: English Council forTrade inGoods
JOINT COMMUNIQUE BYTHE CAIRNS GROUP
Thefollowing jointcommunique issued bytheCairns Group (Argentina, Australia, Brazil,
Canada, Chile, Colombia, Fiji,Hungary, Indonesia, Malaysia, NewZealand, Philippines, Thailand
andUruguay) atitsMinisterial Meeting inManila on27May1995, hasbeenreceived from the
Australian Permanent Mission totheWTO withtherequest thatitbedistributed.
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1. Thefourteen members oftheCairns Group hadtheirfifteenth Ministerial Meeting inManila,
thePhilippines, on26-27 Maytoreview achievements sincetheprevious Ministerial meeting inUruguay
andtoplanactivities forthenexttwelve months. Observer delegations from bothSouth Africa and
Paraguay attended themeeting.
2. Cairns Ministers alsowelcomed theparticipation inthemeeting oftheDirector-General of
theWorld Trade Organization, Mr.Renato Ruggiero.
3. Cairns Group Ministers reiterated theirdetermination tocontinue theirworktoachieve aglobal
system ofagricultural tradefreeofdistortions andconsistent withmarket principles. Cairns Ministers
noted thattheUruguay Round outcome onagriculture wasasignificant firststeptowards thisobjective,
butthatCairns Group members would takeevery opportunity topress forfurther trade liberalization
inagriculture.
4. CairnsMinisterscommendedthecooperationthathadtakenplaceinGenevaonissuesofcommon
concern since thelastMinisterial meeting inMontevideo, Uruguay inMay1994. Much attention had
beengiven todeveloping procedures forthemonitoring andimplementation oftheUruguay Round
Agreement onAgriculture. Cairns representatives inGeneva alsocooperated closely inimportant
multilateral negotiations concerned withagriculture, suchastheaccession ofnewmember countries
totheWorld Trade Organization (WTO), andjointly studied anumber ofspecific problems identified
attheMontevideo meeting. They hadalsocarried outimportant work indeveloping principles on
sustainableagricultureforthethirdsessionoftheCommissiononSustainableDevelopmentinNewYork
inApril 1995.
5. InWashington, Tokyo andBrussels, Cairns countries hadalsoinitiated arrangements during
1994 tomaintain contact onmatters ofcommon concern. Thishadproven especially useful in
Washington inrelation tomonitoring developments relevant tothenewUnited States Farm Billdue
tobedealtwithbytheUnited States Congress laterin1995.
6. Cairns Ministers noted withsatisfaction arrangements worked outinGeneva since thelast
Ministerial meeting inUruguay forterms ofreference fortheWTO Committee onAgriculture, as
wellassetting upappropriate working procedures including notification procedures forboththe
Committees onAgriculture andonSanitary andPhytosanitary Measures.
7. CairnsMinistersstressedtheimportancetheyplacedontheroleoftheCommitteeonAgriculture
inensuring thatUruguay Round outcomes onagriculture arefullyimplemented andrespected. Ministers
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noted thatthiswould require closer cooperation between Cairns Group countries onthese issues in
Geneva overthecoming twelve months. Cairns Ministers saidthiswasofparticular importance with
regard to:thefullimplementation ofmarket access commitments, including ensuring thatadministrative
procedures andtheSpecial Safeguard donotoperate inways which undermine access commitments;
domestic support commitments being strictly adhered toandnotbeing circumvented byattempts to
exclude production andtrade distorting policies from annual reduction commitments; andthefull
implementation ofexport subsidy reduction commitments instrictaccordance withtheUruguay Round
Agreement, whilst preventing circumvention bytheuseofpractices notspecifically addressed inthe
Agreement.
8. Cairns Ministers alsostressed theimportance theyattach totheroleoftheWTO Committee
onSanitary andPhytosanitary Measures inensuring thattheSPSAgreement intheUruguay Round
issimilarly implemented instrict accordance withalltheprovisions andprinciples laiddown init.
Inthisregard, Ministers noted thekeyrolewhich needed tobeplayed bytheinternational standards-
setting bodies.
9. Cairns Group Ministers called uponthemajor agricultural producing andimporting countries
toensure thatchanges todomestic programmes introduced subsequent totheconclusion oftheUruguay
Round negotiations arefullyconsistent withthecommitments andwiththereform direction charted
intheUruguay Round Agreement onAgriculture, namely away fromproduction andtrade distorting
formsofsupporttowardsmoredecoupledformsofsupport,andthefurtherdismantlingofexportsubsidy
practices. Cairns Group Ministers noted thatanytemptation tocircumvent disciplines would beagainst
thespirit andletter oftheUruguay Round Agreement.
10. Cairns Ministers willpress forthecontinuation ofagriculture policy liberalization through
accession andother important negotiations intheWTO context andthrough thereview mechanisms
provided inWTO agreements, inparticular theTrade Policy Review process. Cairns Ministers also
stressedtheimportanceofencompassinggenuinetradeliberalizationonagricultureinanyfutureregional
trade liberalization arrangements.
11. Cairns Ministers recognized thecontribution thatfurther liberalization ofagriculture canmake
onsound environmental policies.
12. Looking ahead tothefurther liberalization oftrade inagriculture onafullymultilateral basis,
Cairns Ministers noted thebuilt-in agenda intheMarrakesh protocol forfuture negotiations onfurther
liberalizing agricultural trade. Cairns Ministers expressed theirdetermination tobegin negotiations
again assoonaspossible. They alsoexpressed theirsupport foranybroadly based agreement to
accelerate Uruguay Round outcomes onagriculture. Ministers noted thatthefirstWTO Biennial
Ministerial meeting would takeplaceinSingapore inthefinalweeks of1996andthatthiswould provide
thefirstopportunity toreview thefuture trade negotiating agenda.
13. AgainstthisbackgroundCairnsMinisterscommittedthemselvestoconsideroverthenexttwelve
months howtheUruguay Round outcome onagriculture might bestbebuiltuponlaterthrough further
negotiations onthereduction ofsupport andliberalization oftrade policies. Ministers undertook to
place thisissueontheiragenda forfurther development andconsideration ofasetoffuture negotiating
goals attheirnextmeeting.
14. Finally, Ministers stressed thatinthedevelopment ofanyfuture broadly based multilateral
agenda forfurther tradenegotiations, including acceleration ofUruguay Round outcomes, agriculture
must beanintegral partofthenegotiations.
15. Ministers alsonoted theiragreement tomeetinColombia inthefirsthalfof1996.