Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)
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Question 97: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment his views on whether the proposals from the European Union to use a so-called simple Swiss formula for the negotiations at the WTO with coefficients of 10 and 15 would mean that developing countries would undergo greater cuts to their industrial tariffs than developed countries going against the commitment to less than full reciprocity in tariff reductions. [23947/06]

Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)
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Question 124: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment his views on whether least developed countries should not be asked to take on additional commitments as part of the WTO negotiations; and if so, if he will therefore communicate to the European Commission the view that the EU should not request that LDCs increase their tariff bindings as part of the current talks. [23946/06]

Michael Ahern (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 97 and 124 together.

In the context of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) negotiations on non- agricultural market access, Ireland and EU Member States are asking that all participants contribute according to their means with due regard to their level of development. The EU approach is that developing countries should do less than developed and that the poorest and most vulnerable should make no new market access commitments. It is on this basis that the EU have sought the use of two coefficients in the industrial tariff negotiations. Using a coefficient of 10 for developed countries, in a formula, will deliver final maximum tariffs of no more than 10%. The use of a higher coefficient of 15, in the case of developing countries, would result in developing countries having to reduce their tariffs to a maximum of 15%.

The Framework Agreement agreed by WTO Ministers at the General Council, in July 2004, includes elements of flexibility for developing countries which remain subject to negotiation and final agreement. These elements of flexibility include, for example, less than formula cuts on a certain percentage of tariff lines, or keeping tariffs unbound, or not applying formula cuts to a certain percentage of tariff lines, all of which can contribute to developing countries delivering tariff cuts on a basis of less than full reciprocity.

Furthermore, the Framework Agreement, adopted by all WTO Members, specifies that least developed countries (LDCs) shall not be required to apply the formula tariff cuts nor participate in the sectorial approach, but that as part of their contribution to the Round of negotiations they are expected to increase their level of binding commitments. In addition, as reflected in the Industrial Goods Market Access Annex of the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration, of December 2005, "there appears to be a common understanding that LDCs will be the judge of the extent and level of the bindings that they make."