New Zealand's WTO ambassador Crawford Falconer, who chairs the key talks in the Doha round to open up world trade, also said he needed more time to draft a revised negotiating text after further talks on technical issues he is calling for May 8.
Japan, the world's third biggest food importer, was joined by Switzerland in proposing limits to restrictions on food exports following moves by several countries to ban or tax exports in the face of spiraling food prices.
WTO rules currently allow such restrictions.
Under the Japanese proposal, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, any WTO member planning to ban or restrict food exports would have to first notify the WTO.
Any other WTO member would then be entitled to call for consultations on the proposed measures, and if the consultations did not produce agreement within a set period, the measure would go to a committee of experts for binding arbitration.
The current proposal in the Doha round talks would only require members to notify the WTO of restrictions or bans 90 days after they were imposed. But it would phase out all existing restrictions within one year and limit new ones to 12 months, or 18 with the approval of importers.
"We had a new Japanese paper on the table on export restrictions which got a pretty cool response, particularly from the developing country members, but got some support from some other members," Falconer said.
Japan's chief agriculture negotiator, Hidenori Murakami, who told reporters the proposal had met with some support, said it would take into account the food security of both exporters and importers among developing countries.
Prices of food staples such as corn and rice have hit records, sparking hunger, riots and hoarding in poor countries.
The United Nations and the World Bank, warning that the high prices could cause unprecedented hunger and social unrest, set up a task force on Tuesday to tackle the problem.
WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy said the high prices were another urgent reason to conclude the Doha round, which WTO members have said they want to complete this year.
To reach a deal by the end of 2008 requires months of detailed work, which would be kicked off by ministers agreeing a broad deal to free up trade in goods and services, and taking the tough political decisions on cuts in tariffs and subsidies.
Until the latest surge in food prices, the discussion revolved around pressure on importers to cut tariffs and subsidies so that exporters could sell more. Now food importers are doing that anyway as many exporters hold back stocks.
The ministerial meeting, now looking unlikely to be in the week of May 19 as proposed, would be triggered by the production of new revising texts in agriculture and industrial goods. But time is running out.
"You couldn't have a paper before the week of the 12th... When you have it thereafter I can't say," Falconer said.
The extra talks next week will give members more time to work on three technical but essential issues -- how to shield politically sensitive products from the full force of tariff cuts, special treatment for tropical products and preferential treatment for exports from mainly former European colonies.
On Wednesday six major food exporters and importers -- Australia, Brazil, Canada, the European Union, Japan and the United States -- presented a revised proposal on how the mechanism for sensitive products would work.
Six major importers -- Canada, the European Union, Japan, Norway, Switzerland and the United States -- promised to produce data showing how much of their markets for sensitive products would open up under the proposal. The data would be issued to coincide with Falconer's new text. (Reuters)
