Ambassador Allen Johnson
Opening Statement at June 4 Press Briefing
WTO Headquarters, Geneva

Thanks for coming to join us this morning. I thought it might be useful to have a quick dialogue with you all, and I’m sure that there’s some curiosity that I may be able to help with and some I may not, but we will do our best.

Just as a general description, before we get started, I thought it might be useful to get a perspective as to how we see things. We continue on our work for a potentially historic agreement in the WTO, particularly in agriculture. My sense is that there is a businesslike attitude, a positive attitude, of trying to work towards reaching a consensus on the various issues. You recall that this process really started with Ambassador Zoellick’s letter in January asking everyone to get back to work and not make 2004 a wasted year, and a trip of some 32,000 miles that he took after that encouraging leaders from some 40 countries that we were serious about trying to make this work. There have since then been meetings in London and Paris and as you know several meetings here.

And so we continue our work. Since I last met with all of you it is important to recognize that in the context of history, the concept of the elimination of export subsidies was accepted by the Europeans – this has been a goal in agriculture for decades. The concept of harmonization and market access has been accepted by the G-20 in their proposal, and the concept of higher tariffs being reduced more. And this has added to the commitments of substantial reductions in trade-distorting domestic support that has been clarified in the framework for many months. The most pleasing part of it for those of us who are working in this area is that it is consistent with what we all agreed to in Doha back in 2001.

The real issue here is, can we, in the time that we have, pass through this window of opportunity or will this window shut before we can get through it, not to be opened again for many months, if not years. The key here is what we do in market access. If we can find a formula for capturing the ambitious harmonization results, then I think we have a real opportunity to capture what I outlined in all three pillars. For the United States, we have always been committed to ambitious results in all three pillars, going back to Doha, our July 2002 proposal, the work we did last summer in the framework, the letter of Ambassador Zoellick in January, right up until today. We are committed to trying to get ambitious results in all three areas.

This is a consensus organization, where each member has the power, and with that power comes responsibility. It is going to be a test of the maturity of this organization if each member recognizes that with this power comes responsibility, and that all of us must contribute if we are going to find success now or for that matter ever, that each member is going to have to contribute to that success in these negotiations. So with that I’ll go to your questions.