Dear Madam and Sir,
Six weeks before representatives from politics, science and industry will
meet on occasion of ABIC2004, the WTO has set the benchmark for the coming
years, eliminating subsidies of agriculture in industrialized nations.
The day, July 31, 2004, may go down in history as the day the World Trade
Organization (WTO) found its teeth - a discovery that will have broad and
long-lasting implications for the future of AgBiotechnology - not to mention
farmers, industrialists, and consumers in both the industrialized and developing
worlds.
It was on that date that the 147 nations that make up the WTO tentatively
agreed that the governments of industrialized nations will slash the massive
and distortive subsidies they pay to farmers in their countries if the
governments of developing countries get out of the way of the free flow
for industrial products and services in eliminating customs-duties. The
agreement came about in no small part thanks to the emergence of the G20
group of developing countries as a viable counterbalance to the industrialized
nations of the United States, Japan, and the European Union.
Subsidies can only be removed, of course, if European farmers become more
efficient.
In order to meet the challenge of global competitiveness, Europe will have
to reconsider its currently rather restrictive GM policy towards AgBiotechnology,
which has been demonstrated in numerous studies to be the most efficient
tool to streamline the efficiency of agricultural businesses.
This year's ABIC2004 will be the perfect time and place to get yourself
first-hand information and valuable contacts in this powerfully emerging
new market.
Register online under www.abic2004.org to meet people from all over the
world. 34 nations from developing as well as developed countries are already
enrolled.
Phytowelt GmbH
ABIC 2004 Conference Office
Nattermannallee 1 D-50829 Cologne
email: newsletter at abic2004.org
internet: www.abic2004.org
phone: + 49 221-49299-55
fax: + 49-221-49299-560
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