Agriculture negotiations at the WTO: Update report
This paper constitutes an update report introducing the second three-part series detailing the developments in the agriculture trade negotiations currently underway at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). This report series is being prepared by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD).
This first report issued at the end of October 2001 is designed to provide a brief update on the negotiating process since ICTSD’s last report in May 2001. It should be noted, that the recent negotiation period has largely been conditioned by the approaching WTO Ministerial Conference, which is currently scheduled to be held in Doha, Qatar, on 9-13 November. Some sort of stagnation in the negotiation process was noticeable, primarily deriving from the fact that all further negotiations of the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) are intertwined with a variety of other issues to be addressed at the Fourth WTO Ministerial Conference, including issues directly relating to the meeting itself: whether or not it would take place in Doha; whether or not Members will agree on launching a new trade round; if yes, whether it will be a comprehensive round covering new issues such as trade and investment, competition policy and transparency in government procurement; and whether or not Members will address controversial topics as e.g. labour standards, the principle of precaution or the relationship between WTO rules and multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs).
This report is divided into three sections:
• Section 1 is a brief introduction setting the agriculture negotiations in the overall context of activities at the WTO.
• Section 2 extrapolates from the negotiations those themes, which have been identified as showing most significance for work on influencing European trade policy-making, partly providing descriptive and analytical detail of expressed positions.
• Section 3 provides an overview regarding the work undertaken so far with regard to finding middle ground for common positions on agriculture trade, including those that might be decided during the Fourth Ministerial, while also analysing how the efforts made by the General Council and the WTO Secretariat have been received by Members so far.
The methodology used in compiling this report combined extensive outreach to country delegates based in Geneva as well as representatives of local nongovernmental organisations. Additionally, this report contains innovations and changes from previous reports. The quick references now include information on the importance of trade and agricultural trade for each country. This is designed to assist readers in assessing the relative importance of trade issues for that country. These are included as appendices. Second, a new approach has been taken in describing the principle groups involved in the negotiations. While this is a great oversimplification of a very complex geometry, we hope it will allow new readers to access the reports more easily, while providing enough detail and reference for more experienced readers to understand the negotiation and issues.