Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 7 • Number 43 • 17th December 2003
G-35 Demands Greater Role For SP, SSM Concepts In AG Negotiations
At a 4 December consultation with WTO General Council (GC) Chair Carlos Perez del Castillo, the so-called Alliance for Special Products (SPs) and a Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM), or G-35, called on the GC Chair to give greater attention to the concepts of SPs and the establishment of an SSM for developing countries in the post-Cancun agriculture consultations. Representatives of the group of developing countries stated at a subsequent press briefing that these concepts were necessary tools to address food security, poverty alleviation and rural development, all of which were core concerns and principles driving the Alliance. The grouping voiced its frustration about the "fact that these issues have not been given the attention they deserve" during the recent Chair-led consultation, a fact "which may lead to the erroneous impression that these issues are not central to moving the agriculture negotiations forward," the G-35 added.
The Alliance on SPs and SSM, which was formed shortly before and during the Cancun Ministerial Conference, demands that appropriate flexibility be granted to developing countries to self-designate a number of SPs which would be exempted from any tariff reduction or tariff rate quota (TRQ) commitment. Moreover, a new SSM for developing countries should be established to provide them with an operational tool to counter market volatility and sudden import surges. The new mechanism should apply both to SP and selected non-SP tariff lines.
The most recent draft text on a framework for agriculture modalities (Derbez text) provides for an SP category, but only within one of the three bands of the proposed tariff reduction formula. Reduction commitments on such SPs would be significantly less then for the other tariff lines. The Derbez text further provides that a "special agricultural safeguard (SSM) shall be established for use by developing countries," but whose conditions and applicability would be determined at a late stage. The following countries are currently members of the G-35 group: Barbados, Botswana, China, Cuba, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Korea, Mauritius, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Uganda, Venezuela, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
"SP/SSM Alliance complain about neglect of their concepts in agriculture negotiations," TWN INFO SERVICE, 9 December 2003.
VIET NAM TO SPEED UP ACCESSION TALKS
The WTO Working Party on the Accession of Viet Nam met from 11-12 December to start to create a draft report outlining basic information, including terms and conditions for the accession. In the interim since the last meeting of the Working Party, Viet Nam provided new information and offers in the goods and services sectors, and progressed in bilateral talks with WTO Members. During the talks, a number of countries nonetheless requested more, and clearer, information. They also disagreed over whether Viet Nam should be classified as a "low-income and highly indebted poor country" or also as a "competitive developing economy with great potential," with related rights and obligations within the WTO. Vietnam, with a number of developing countries, preferred the former option, while the EC, Australia and others supported the latter. At the end of the talks, the chief negotiator of Viet Nam, Trade Vice Minister Luong Van Tu, commented that "we really expect negotiators to show more understanding and sympathy with the low-level developing economy and the modest trade of Viet Nam, by demonstrating flexibility, allowing preferential treatment and necessary transition periods as applied for in our action plans and offers, in order to smooth Viet Nam’s development progress and positively contribute to the WTO’s success".
As the meeting came to a close, Members warned that a lot of work still remained to be done. Viet Nam hopes to join the WTO on 1 January 2005, and has requested three meetings of the Working Party in 2004 to make this possible.
"Viet Nam starts its quantum jump but still some way to go," WTO RELEASE, 12 December 2003.