» San Jose, Costa Rica
[23 - 25 February, 2004]

The Cairns Group met in San Jose, Costa Rica, 23-24 February 2004. In consultation with Cairns Group Farm Leaders it was decided not to convene a formal Farm Leaders meeting adjacent to the Ministers meeting. Normally Farm Leaders would meet when Ministers met.

The rationale for this decision was that the meeting in Costa Rica was relatively close to the Cancun WTO Ministerial in September 2003 and, due to the breakdown of the negotiations in Cancun, little movement had occurred in the WTO agricultural negotiations since then. Moreover, a strong Farm Leaders communiqué was ratified at Cancun and the Groups' message or resolve had not changed since that time.

It was decided, therefore, that the National Farmers' Federation, as Chair of the Farm Leaders Group, would attend the meeting in Costa Rica on behalf of Farm Leaders.

It was agreed that NFF, on behalf of Farm Leaders, would present a Communiqué to Ministers (based on the Cancun document) Cairns Group Farm Leaders Statement to Ministers and, just as if not more importantly, deliver a strong political message from Farm Leaders about the importance of the Cairns Group standing up and showing strong leadership.

Cairns Group Media Release - 25 February - Farmers Deliver Strong Message to Cairns Group Ministers

With this agreement in place other Farm Leaders were invited to attend as they wished; several did, namely farm representatives from Costa Rica, Guatemala, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa and Canada.

Photo Above: Mr Allan Burgess, Trade Committee Chairman, National Farmers' Federation Australia and Ing. José Antonio Madriz Carrillo, President, La Cámara Nacional de Agricultura y Agroindustria

During the course of the Cairns Group meeting Farm Leaders participated in a working lunch with Cairns Group Ministers and met with WTO Director General Supachai Pantitchpakdi and the newly appointed Chair of the WTO agriculture negotiating committee, Mr Tim Grosser.

On behalf of Farm Leaders, NFF Trade Chairman, Allan Burgess, addressed the opening ceremony of the meeting.

The mood at the meeting was positive and there was a sense that Cairns Group countries remained committed to working together to pursue an outcome in the WTO agricultural negotiations. Cairns Group Ministerial communiquè