Alþjóðaviðskiptastofnunin - WTO: Samningaviðræður um landbúnað. Committee on Agriculture - Special Session - 24-28 February 2003 Statement by Iceland to the Formal Special Session
Committee on Agriculture
Special Session
24-28 February 2003
Statement by Iceland to the Formal Special Session
Thank you Mr. Chairman.
Further to the joint statement made earlier by the Delegation of Switzerland on our behalf and a number of other countries, which we wholeheartedly support, I'd like to make a few brief observations of a general nature. We also respectfully request that our general statement last Monday be entered into the formal records of this meeting.
We greatly appreciate your efforts in furthering our work in conformity with the timetable mandated by the Doha Declaration. However, we share what must be your frustration over the fact that our negotiations should primarily be characterized by the lack of that fundamental requisite: negotiation.
Without negotiation, there can be no compromise. Without compromise, there can be no fulfilment of the Doha mandate. What we have on the table in the form of the first draft modalities is a valiant but ultimately flawed attempt to move our work forward, both in terms of its approach and scale. We need a far better balance and greater respect for the different interests of Members if we are to achieve our common objective.
I'd like to suggest that contrary to what some Delegations have stressed, we do not require a higher degree of ambition from your second draft. Recalling a statement we made last September on the very subject of ambition, what we request from you is a true representation of the full scope and diversity of the high levels of ambition already demonstrated by individual Members in this process, developed and developing alike, expressed in conformity with the process of progressive liberalization launched by the Agreement on Agriculture.
I'll leave you with a quote attributed to the great American basketball coach John Wooden, which is as relevant to our work here as it was to his players on the court: "We should not let what we cannot do interfere with what we can do."
We wish you the very best of luck in your further work, Mr. Chairman.