Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 10 • Number 14 • 26th April 2006
AG: Modalities Deadline Will Be Missed; Six Weeks Of Continuous Negotiations Launched
WTO Members will not meet the month-end deadline for agreeing ‘full modalities’ for farm subsidy and tariff cuts, the chair of the Doha Round agriculture negotiations finally acknowledged on 21 April. "We have not achieved full modalities… clear and simple" Ambassador Crawford Falconer of New Zealand said at the end of an ‘agriculture week,’ adding "I don’t think that can be done by the end of April." Instead, he proposed six weeks of continuous negotiations without any formal deadlines to enable Members to move towards consensus.
The heads of all WTO Member delegations agreed on 24 April that they were so far from meeting the deadline that there was no point in summoning ministers to Geneva at the end of April in an attempt to reach a deal. The same conclusion was reached earlier by the 25 ambassadors present at a 21 April ‘green room’ meeting called by WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, in light of the ‘disappointing’ assessments by the agriculture and non-agricultural market access (NAMA) chairs.
Falconer outlines process for way forward
Falconer proposed an intensive cycle of three fortnight-long sets of informal meetings, beginning the week of 1 May.
According to the process he outlined for these two-week cycles, meetings in the first week would primarily be smaller group consultations; during the second, several informal meetings of the entire membership would be held along with consultations. Both of the weeks would end in a round-up for all Members to take stock of progress.
The new schedule aims to allow capital-based officials to return home during the first week of each cycle, and then return to Geneva for the second. Although the process was designed to facilitate input from capitals into the negotiations, several developing country delegates pointed to the high cost of repeatedly bringing senior capital-based officials back to Geneva. Many poorer developing countries already find it unaffordable to bring officials from capital to Geneva for important negotiations. Some delegates suggested that the chair should organize the discussions in such a way so as to minimise the need for continuous back-and-forth travel.
Falconer said that the six weeks of negotiations will be based on ‘reference papers’, spelling out areas of agreement as well as areas where further convergence was still needed. He already circulated five such papers ahead of the agriculture week. Falconer has indicated that in principle, these reference papers should form the basis for discussions among delegates, and eventually evolve into draft text. Reference papers will eventually be prepared on all topics under negotiation.
Comparing the negotiations to a pyramid, one source said that the six weeks of discussions would help solidify the base of the pyramid in order better to lay the foundation for the top, that is, the political decisions on specific percentages for tariff and subsidy cuts that will ultimately be necessary.
Falconer told the press that there was no point in setting another specific deadline for an agreement in the talks. "Deadlines have no credibility in my view" he added, underlining instead the importance of getting things done. During the meeting, Members agreed that a new deadline would not be useful.
Several delegations emphasized that the start of the WTO’s August break "is not a deadline", and that modalities should be agreed well before then. Many negotiators and other trade observers have long described the end of July as the real deadline for an agreement on full modalities if the round is to be concluded by early 2007.
In a briefing with reporters on 21 April, a senior US trade official stated his belief that negotiators must achieve "real tangible, meaningful, substantial progress through May and June" if they are to be able to complete the schedules of commitments each country must make by the end of the round. Developing country officials also emphasized the need to reach agreement on full modalities by the end of June.
Ahead of the six-week negotiations, Falconer scheduled meetings from 26-28 April to discuss some market access-related issues. Members remain profoundly divided on how deeply to cut farm tariffs, and have done little other than exchange rhetorical barbs on the issue. The three days of meetings will pay specific attention to flexibilities for developing countries, including the special safeguard mechanism and the rules for the ’special products’ which they will be able to shield from the full force of tariff cuts.
In spite of the continuing impasse in the overall talks, Members made slow but steady technical progress during the agriculture week on a number of technical issues related to export competition and domestic support (see related story, this issue). While market access issues remain the most controversial, a developing country official underlined the fact that all three pillars were in fact linked. Noting that the overall picture was not bright, a developing country official nonetheless emphasized that "things can happen in a very short time, if there’s the political will".
ICTSD reporting; "Planned Ministerial Scrapped as Key Members of WTO See Trade Pact Hopes Fizzle," WTO REPORTER, 24 April 2006; "Delegates try to kickstart Doha round," THE GUARDIAN, 24 April 2006.