KUALA LUMPUR, July 19 (Bernama) -- Malaysia is unhappy with the outcome ofthe latest draft on the modalities on liberalisation of agriculture underthe World Trade Organisation (WTO) agenda.

It said major developed countries failed to adequately address the issuesraised by developing countries.

Minister of International Trade and Industry, Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz saidthe latest draft made available to all WTO member countries, was nodifferent from the previous one.

"Very little is being offered in terms of cut back on subsidies inagriculture by the developed countries, for example. The numbers stilldidn't match up with what is expected by most of developing countries,"she said.

Looking at the current progress, the minister said it would not besurprising if the Doha Round was protracted, similar to what had happenedto the Uruguay Round which was extended for two years.

"It may happen, even Oman is not happy which is indicative of how some ofthe problems or issued raised by the developing countries are not beingaddressed adequately by the latest draft," she said.

Malaysia is always looking at various ways to ensure developed countriesespecially from the European Union and the United States, fulfill theircommitments in reducing their substantial subsidies, which placed them atan unfair advantage over agricultural exporters from developing countries.

She added that although Malaysia was not directly affected by the issue,however, it realised that many developing countries were affected and nothappy with the latest draft.

Malaysia will be sending a delegation to the General Council Meeting inGeneva in July, comprising officials from various ministries.

"There are lots of issues to be deliberated" she said.

Apart from agriculture, the minister said the negotiations on themodalities on trade facilitation was expected to proceed, but Malaysiareiterated its position to see three other issues such as competition,investment and transparency in government procurement to be dropped.

On services, Rafidah said Malaysia was committed to ongoing negotiationsin which the countries had made its offers while looking into respondingto some of the requests.

Meanwhile, on issues concerning non-agriculture market access, Rafidahsaid this issue was of special interest to Malaysia as an exporter ofmanufactured products.

"We export many manufactured products, so we would like to ensure that thetreatment of tariff and market access issues are according to ourrequest," she added.

Rafidah also said that she was also in touch with WTO director-generalSupachai Panitchpakdi on the latest draft.

-- BERNAMA