Implications of the Chair’s Modalities Text for the SSM and for Treatment of SPs
11th March 2008
The 8 February revision of the chair’s draft ‘modalities’ paper (TN/AG/W/4/Rev.1) contains for the first time an attempt to set out, in legal language, a structure for a ‘special safeguard mechanism’ that developing countries will be able to use to raise tariffs temporarily in the event of import surges or price depressions. The draft text still contains a number of alternative options that have yet to be agreed, however. In order to enable negotiators and policy-makers to better understand the implications of various possible restrictions or flexibilities in the text, ICTSD invited Raul Montemayor of the Free Farmers Federation of the Philippines to present the results of simulations he had conducted on the basis of historical data from six country studies.