Sydney, Australia (Inaugural)
3 April 1998
The inaugural meeting of Cairns Group Farm Leaders was held in Sydney, Australia from 28 March to 3 April 1998. As guests of the National Farmers' Federation, Presidents of the peak farm organisations in the Cairns Group countries met to send a strong message to the world that farmers are strongly supportive of an ambitious reform agenda for the 1999 agricultural trade negotiations. This meeting, held concurrently with the 18th Cairns Group Ministerial Meeting, provided an opportunity for industry and government to work closely in determining the negotiating position of the Cairns Group for 1999.
The farm leaders meeting commenced with a farm study tour of northern New South Wales. The farm leaders, together with the Minister for Primary Industries and Energy, inspected sugar, beef, dairy, wool, cotton and dryland cropping enterprises over a two day period. At each location, representatives from each of these commodities spoke on the importance and gains of free trade to their industry and the damaging effect of continued agricultural protection. As well, the Cairns Group farm leaders were able to share their trade concerns and discuss specific problems pertaining to their countries.
On returning to Sydney, the farm leaders met to formally discuss the strong message they would send to governments of the world, calling for an end to trade distorting measures in food and other agricultural products. At their press conference on Tuesday, 31 March, the farm leaders issued the joint communiqueannouncing that they would mount an international campaign to demand reform of farm trade through the World Trade Organisation's next round of trade talks in 1999. In announcing the communiqué, NFF President Donald McGauchie reaffirmed that despite the gains in the Uruguay Round, their members continued to suffer from heavy distortions in world trade and it was time to take action.
The President of the American Farm Bureau Federation endorsed the communiqué adding that US farmers looked to the next set of negotiations to eliminate quotas, export subsidies and set tariffs at zero. The joint statement was communicated to Cairns Group Ministers at the opening session of the Ministerial meeting on Thursday, 2 April.
Whilst Cairns Group Ministers met on 2-3 April, the farm leaders participated in a Trade Strategy Seminar involving approximately 100 industry representatives. The seminar addressed four key issues: what lessons could be learnt from the Uruguay Round, what issues had to be addressed in the future, what were the politics of the issues and how important was trade liberalisation to Cairns Group farmers? Experts, drawn from leading research institutions, former trade negotiators, senior officials and academics, prepared papers and made presentations on these four questions in an effort to identify and develop strategies for farm groups in the Cairns Group countries to advance trade liberalisation.
At the end of the seminar, Cairns Group Farm Leaders gathered to consider the strategies for collective action. The development of this internet website was just one of the outcomes of the insightful and productive two day seminar.
As a finale to the weeks events, QBE Insurance hosted a grand dinner for Cairns Group Ministers, Farm Leaders, Government officials, Ambassadors and industry representatives. The evening was the culmination of a week of negotiating, lobbying, influencing, networking and most importantly, communicating - communicating a clear message to the world that the Cairns Group will continue to aggressively pursue reform in the massively distorted agricultural markets of today.
Addresses by both Donald McGauchie and Minister Fischer at the dinner, reinforced this clear objective of the Cairns Group to end the second-class treatment of trade in farm goods.
The international campaign mounted by the Cairns Group Farm Leaders in Sydney has only just begun. The leaders have agreed to meet again alongside the WTO Ministerial in the United States at the end of November in 1999.
Next Meeting Report:
25/8/1999 Buenos Aires, Argentina