Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 4 • Number 6 • 12th April 2004

Sense of Movement in Agriculture Negotiations

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WTO delegates that participated in agriculture negotiations from 22-26 March (see BRIDGES Weekly, 24 March 2004) reported a change of tone in the concluding plenary of the WTO Committee on Agriculture (CoA) special session. Reportedly, the week’s intensive consultations led to a more positive negotiating climate as Members finally started listening to each other, following months marked by a generally negative tone in the post-Cancun agriculture debate. While the Chair of the special (negotiating) session Ambassador Tim Groser (New Zealand) in his concluding assessment said that Members had not yet reached a “problem-solving mode”, he noted emerging consensus on the aim to agree on a negotiating framework by end-July, which would later be fleshed out to full modalities.

Working on the framework text, negotiators would act on the “working hypothesis” as the text might not include numbers, Groser said. This would require that Members show “conditional trust,” taking into account that the parameters set out in the Doha mandate on agriculture, would remain “the political anchor” for the negotiation outcomes. According to trade sources, market access emerged as the most contentious negotiating area. Many participants expressed their discontent with the ‘blended’ tariff reduction formula, which was first introduced by the US-EU draft framework text last August (see BRIDGES Weekly, 21 August 2003) and modified in several subsequent drafts. Some, such as the Cairns Group members, said they were unconvinced by the blended formula as it might not lead to real new market access, while others such as the Switzerland-led G-10 found it too restrictive. Sources reported that most speakers agreed that developing countries should be allowed a category of special products (SPs) to be exempted from general reduction commitments. However, differences remained over the conditions for designating SPs. Groser scheduled another four ‘Agriculture Weeks’ for 20-23 April, 2-4 June, 23-25 June and 14-16 July. The upcoming April session will use the current negotiating format — consisting mainly of informal negotiations — but may be somewhat more structured, sources reported.

ICTSD reporting.