Towards Development-Oriented Agriculture Policies: Refraiming the Debate at the WTO

1st February 2002 • Co-organised with FES

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The context

Repeatedly, WTO Members have expressed their commitment to place developing countries’ needs and interests at the heart of the WTO work programme. In agriculture, Members agreed that they should further be enabled to “effectively take account of their development needs” and that “non-trade concerns” would be taken into account in the negotiations. Despite this window for institutional reform, trade policy-related priorities and objectives pursued by many developed and developing Members are further largely led by mercantilist views on the global agriculture trade regime. Consequently, as Members in the current negotiations under the Doha mandate continue to experience the agricultural trading system in its pillar-based structure: market access; export competition; and domestic support, the debate is further failing to bring a true sustainable development-perspective on agriculture by fully integrating public policy issues such as food security, poverty reduction, rural employment, environmental protection, and preserving biodiversity in the framework of agriculture trade policy-making at the WTO.

As we now move toward the most critical phase in the agriculture negotiations, taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the post Doha negotiations on agriculture from a sustainable development viewpoint, while avoiding drawbacks, will require:

- Identifying key policy issues related to agriculture and their linkages to agriculture trade negotiations currently underway;

- Promotion of creative and innovative pro-poor, pro-development positioning in agriculture negotiations;

- Supporting a departure from traditional perspectives on the negotiations and moving the debate from the current mercantilist approach towards a public policy-based approach on the agriculture trade regime; and

- Promoting the inclusion and participation of capital-based policy makers and influencers, particularly from developing countries, in multilateral negotiations by facilitating interaction with decision makers and Geneva-based negotiators.

The concept

As a contribution to launch this process, ICTSD and the Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung (FES) are organising a one-day informal consultation with a small group of both Geneva- and capital-based agriculture trade negotiators from key developing countries, which are perceived to be driving the debate on agriculture trade & sustainable development in the South. Through providing a space for open and frank discussions, this informal and off-the-record consultation will promote creative and innovative approaches on the pursuit of agriculture-related public policies through negotiations under the Doha mandate. Hereby it is hoped to initiate a process of re-thinking and re-evaluation of traditionally targeted trade policy objectives in the area of agriculture by creating capacity on the agriculture trade & sustainable development nexus. The discussion will also benefit from inputs of four respected resource persons in the field of agriculture which will serve as professional reference points. Furthermore, this informal consultation with trade negotiators will help identify indicators and starting-points for possible follow-up research and dialogue with negotiators on specified issue areas, thereby ensuring that the focus of such envisaged programme will be of highest possible relevance for the debate. Participants are invited in their own capacity, and are not expected to represent the position of their country. Formal presentations will be kept to a minimum, allowing for enough time for an open and frank debate.