Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 6 • Number 12 • 3rd April 2002
WTO Reaches Agreement On Sequencing Of Agriculture Negotiations
WTO Members on 26 March agreed on how to map by the end of March next year key negotiating guidelines for the new round of farm trade talks currently underway at the WTO. The decision followed a lengthy debate on how to sequence the discussions on the so-called modalities for negotiating new commitments in the areas of market access, export subsidies and domestic support as provided for in the Doha Declaration (paras. 13 and 14).
The WTO Committee on Agriculture (CoA) reached the agreement at a special (negotiating) session on a work programme for establishing the modalities for the next stage of the agriculture negotiations by 31 March 2003. According to the new work programme, Members will address the three different ‘pillars’ of the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) separately and in sequence: export subsidies, competition and restrictions on 17-20 June; market access on 2-4 September; and domestic support on 23-27 September. These informal meetings will be held back-to-back with formal ones where the Chairperson will report on the work undertaken in the informal special sessions. Following a wrap- up meeting scheduled for 18-20 November, Members envisaged having a draft overview paper ready for circulation by 18 December 2002, which would then be finalised in the follow-up process until end-March 2003.
According to the work programme, "special and differential treatment for developing countries shall be an integral part of all elements of the negotiations under this programme" and "non-trade concerns will be taken into account in these negotiations" as provided for in the Doha Declaration (para 13). As several trade sources explained, this would mean that special and differential treatment (S&D) as well as non-trade concerns would be discussed where appropriate under each of the three pillars.
According to the WTO Secretariat, the 12-month work programme agreed upon dealt with one of the most critical phases in the agriculture talks as it would set targets — including numerical targets — for achieving the objectives set out in the Doha Declaration. These include significant cuts in both tariffs and subsidies. Sources indicated that this ‘modalities’ stage would therefore set the tone of the negotiations’ final outcome, as the modalities will be used by Members for making their initial offers to negotiate their specific commitments.
The practice of agreeing on modalities first, followed by the negotiation of specific commitments, was previously used during the Uruguay Round (for the 1993 modalities, see WTO document MTN.GNG/MA/W/24, searchable on the WTO website at http://docsonline.wto.org/gen_search.asp).
As a developing country delegate from the Like-Minded Group reported, there had been a great deal of discussion on the dates and the number of meetings as well as on their sequencing, with the EC in particular pushing for discussing market access first, whereas developing country groups such as the Friends of the Development Box proposed moving market access discussions until after August. Most developing countries, said the source, would not have the capacity in Geneva or in the capitals to assess all the modalities options regarding market access put forward at a June meeting. Therefore, in order to provide for adequate participation in the market access negotiations, domestic support and export subsidies should be addressed first with no more than three meetings held before the end of this year, the source explained. In the end, Members agreed on the compromise formula put forward by the Chair of the special sessions of the CoA, Stuart Harbinson. Harbinson’s compromise used the sequence of export subsidies, market access, and domestic support, and scheduled four meetings for 2002.
However, as some Members were of the view that it would be difficult to discuss the three pillars in a segregated way, the agreed work programme provides that "Special Sessions will be complemented by informal consultations, including consultations between Members and consultations under the direction of the Chairperson" in which the raised issues "will not necessarily follow the order set out above in the programme of meetings" . The Like-Minded Group source commented that this would only take place in the form of technical considerations so as to keep the agreed sequencing in place. It was further noted that Members would have the chance to discuss again all the issues at the three 2003 meetings so that the first three pillar-based meetings scheduled for June and September this year should simply help to establish an overview about the various options for modalities which had been tabled since the start of the agriculture negotiations in early 2000.
Commenting on the tight 12-month timeline for the establishment of the modalities, one African developing country Member said that many developing countries would not like to be rushed by the fast pace of the modalities talks. Nevertheless, some Members did not expect modalities with concrete figures by end-March next year anyway, as WTO Members were not likely be able to agree on the fundamentals of the new commitments at that early stage, he added. While some African countries expressed a desire for an "early harvest" in the agriculture negotiations so as to "not immediately lose what they have just gained at Doha," other sources from both developed and developing country Members cautioned that the agriculture negotiations might not be the right place to expect gains for developing countries prior to the conclusion of the new trade round.
According to the Doha Declaration agreed by trade ministers at the Fourth WTO Ministerial Conference last November at Doha, modalities for agriculture negotiations are to be established by end-March 2003. Farm trade talks, together with the other Doha mandated negotiations comprising the single undertaking, are to be concluded by 1 January 2005.
For further details, information and other agriculture-related links see the WTO Press Release at http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/pres02_e/pr282_e.htm.
"WTO Members Set Schedule To Meet 12-Month ‘Modalities’ Deadline," WTO PRESS RELEASE, 27 March 2002. ICTSD Internal Files.