Bush administration to pitch tariff elimination for WTO members. (Washington).(Brief Article)

Food Institute Report, The, December, 2002

The Bush administration proposed eliminating all tariffs on manufactured goods among World Trade Organization (WTO) members by 2015, reviewed The Wall Street Journal. The plan, put forward on Nov. 26 by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, calls for duties on manufactured goods worldwide to be 8% by 2010 and then progressively reduced to zero over the next five years. Duties on goods that are currently set at 5% or under would be lowered to zero by 2010.

Critics quickly lined up against the plan. Supachai Panitchpakdi, the WTO's director general, said developing countries could suffer under the proposal, which the European Union called unrealistic, noted The Wall Street Journal (Nov. 27). Mr. Panitchpakdi said many...

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