Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 8 • Number 43 • 15th December 2004
Agriculture Informals At WTO Address Export Financing, Blue Box
WTO Members met informally on 13 and 14 December for agriculture negotiations that included discussions on a new draft text on export financing, and on 15 December to debate additional disciplines for so-called "blue box" domestic support.
The new export financing text, presented on 14 December by Agriculture special session Chair Tim Groser, closely resembles the document proposed by former Chair Stuart Harbinson in February 2003 that sought to present new disciplines on government-backed export financing under Articles 9 and 10 of the Agreement on Agriculture. However, the new text incorporates the decision of the July Package (agreed on 1 August 2004) to limit repayment periods for export credits to a maximum of 180 days, revises the language on minimum interest rates for export financing, and introduces a new risk-sharing requirement. However, it leaves the details of special and differential treatment for developing countries open for further negotiations. The 13-14 December meeting also discussed the special safeguard mechanism, the methodology for product-specific caps on aggregate measure of support (AMS), and the base/reference periods in the context of domestic support commitments.
The 15 December meeting focused on possible new criteria for disciplining blue box payments (partially decoupled farm payments under production-limiting programmes) for the first time since the July Package was agreed. The meeting included a presentation from the G-20 group of developing countries calling for the establishment of product-specific spending caps for blue box programmes similar to those proposed for the amber box (trade-distorting subsidies). The G-20 group insisted that the blue box is only designed to help major subsidisers reform their agricultural programmes, and that such programmes should therefore be considered temporary in nature.
A formal meeting of the special session of the Committee on Agriculture will be held on 17 December. ICTSD will provide coverage of the full "agriculture week" in the next issue of BRIDGES Weekly.
ICTSD reporting; " WTO Members Review Draft Chair Text On Export Credits for Agriculture Trade," WTO REPORTER, 15 December 2004; "G-20 Seeks More Limits, Product Caps On ‘Blue Box’ Domestic Farm Supports," WTO REPORTER, 15 December 2004.