	australian minister says agriculture gatt priority australian  minister john dawkins said if the general agreement on tariffs and  gatt does not give high priority to agricultural  reform it will be neglecting the area of greatest crisis in a statement to the informal gatt  ministers conference here he said agriculture is a problem which involves all countries and seriously affects the debt servicing abilities of a number of developing countries he said major countries should be showing leadership on this problem we will be giving close attention to the processes in the oecd organisation of economic cooperation and development and elsewhere leading to the venice economic summit where we will be looking to the participants to adopt a strong commitment to agricultural  reform dawkins said the venice summit is scheduled for june he said australia s interests in the uruguay round the eighth under the gatt are wide ranging dawkins said he sees the round as providing a timely opportunity to secure further meaningful  liberalisation in all sectors and to restore confidence in the multilateral system dawkins said initial meetings of the negotiating groups established in geneva after the gatt declaration last september in punta del este uruguay have made a reasonable start but it is vital that  ministers maintain the pressure on these processes we must see that the commitments made at punta del este on standstill and rollback are carried into practice the standstill and rollback of protection offers the global trading system a chance to hold and wind back protection during the negotiations which are expected to last up to four years he said reuter 
