Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 8 • Number 19 • 2nd June 2004
Agriculture: G-20 Tables New Proposal; Negotiations Ongoing In Geneva
The WTO Special Session of the Committee on Agriculture (CoA) is convening from 2-4 June for an ‘agriculture week’. Members are continuing negotiations and consultations in an effort to establish a negotiating framework agreement for the Doha agriculture talks before delegates adjourn at the end of July for the WTO summer break. Discussions in this third post-Cancun ‘agriculture week’ are expected to largely centre on a new market access proposal submitted by the G-20 group of developing countries on 28 May (available at http://www.ictsd.org/issarea/ag/resources/G-20_Ag_tariff_Proposal.pdf). According to trade sources, the G-10 group — which consists mainly of developed country net food-importers, including Switzerland, Japan and Norway — is to table a revised comprehensive negotiating proposal during the three-day agriculture talks.
The ‘agriculture week’ began in the morning of 2 June with an open-ended informal special (negotiating) session. During the rest of the day, Members met in informal consultations among delegations in smaller groups. These informal meetings will continue throughout 3 June and the morning of 4 June. The agriculture week will conclude in a formal CoA special session on Friday afternoon, 4 July.
No alternative formula proposed in new G-20 submission
The G-20 — including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Cuba, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Tanzania, Venezuela and Zimbabwe — recently tabled a new proposal on agricultural market access. Notably, the group did not come up with a new tariff reduction formula to replace the ‘blended’ formula developed by the EC and US in their August 2003 framework text (see BRIDGES Weekly, 21 August 2003). Instead, the group set out the basic concepts and principles to which the future reduction methodology must live up to in order to provide fair and equitable outcomes. According to the proposal, the essential elements of such formula are: "progressivity," i.e. a formula leading to higher tariffs being cut more than lower ones; "flexibility" for both developed and developing countries to take into account certain sensitivities; "neutrality," meaning the formula should not per se be biased against the tariff structures of certain Members; as well as "proportionality," meaning less than full reciprocity between developed and developing countries along the lines of the approach used during the Uruguay Round.
At a 13-14 May ‘mini-ministerial’ in Paris (see BRIDGES Weekly, 19 May 2004) the G-20 had been requested by the EC and US to come up with an alternative reduction formula, as the developing country grouping had rejected the ‘blended’ formula approach proposed by the US-EC duo. Moreover, sources reported that the US prompted the G-20 at the 17 May WTO General Council meeting to circulate a new proposal within ten days so as to give Members enough time to digest the proposal before the next agriculture week commencing on 2 June. The G-20, however, stressed that Members should work on the details of the new formula together.
In their preliminary comments, key Members such as the EC criticised the new G-20 market access proposal for its vague nature. According to a trade source, however, the developing country grouping had taken the right approach. The G-20 clearly defined the key parameters any future reduction formula would have to fulfil, thereby playing the ball back to the US and EC, which now have to show whether they are willing to engage in good faith discussions on the underlying principles of the reduction methodology.
While observers of the negotiations see a commitment amongst G-20 members to work with the whole WTO Membership towards a reduction formula to be included in the framework agreement, many doubt whether the very limited period of time left before the end of July would allow for such an endeavour. "This now very much depends on the willingness of the US and EC to show flexibility in the agriculture talks," a developing country source commented.
The next issue of BRIDGES Weekly will provide an update on the remainder of the agriculture week.
ICTSD reporting; "Agriculture: G-20 keeps options open in proposal on market access for WTO farm talks," WTO REPORTER, "1 June 2004; Agriculture: Elements of market access proposal outlined by G-20 for WTO agriculture talks," WTO REPORTER, 27 May 2004.