From left: Diana Acconcia,
Chief of the Economic Section of the European Union
Delegation; Robert Villamil, General Manager of the
Chamber of Industries, and US Embassy Political Economic
Counselor Oliver Griffith
On Thursday, Oct. 9 the Chamber
of Industries of Uruguay organized the seminar titled “Aftermath
of the Meeting in Cancún: Participants’ Visions
of the Future of WTO”.
The seminar was held at the
Chamber’s conference room and was attended by more
than 100 participants including representatives from diplomatic
missions, businessmen and officials.
“I agree with Uruguay’s
position in that the WTO Meeting in Cancún had no
positive results and that instead of being a scenario for
negotiations, the conference was strongly influenced by
political and social debates,” said US Embassy Political/Economic
Counselor Oliver Griffith.
High-ranked officials, such
as Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs Amb. Guillermo Valles,
Ambassador of Brazil Dr. Eduardo Dos Santos and Chief of
the Economic Section of the European Union Delegation Diana
Acconcia, also gave their views on the WTO Meeting.
During his presentation Griffith
said, “You need to bring specific proposals if you
are negotiating with 145 countries … Participating
countries spent too much time in political discussions…
You can’t negotiate one product, like in the case
of cotton. Products have to be negotiated in block.”
Regarding the United
States, Griffith added, “We are not the bad guys.
We will eliminate all agricultural subsidies between 2005
and 2010… Even after the Farm Bill was approved, we
are below other countries … The US market has more
commercial deficit than many other countries. It’s
twice as big as the rest of the world.”
