Agriculture Negotiations at the WTO: ‘Modalities’ Outlook Report
This paper is the third report detailing the developments in the agriculture trade negotiations currently underway at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). It has been prepared by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD).
This report, issued in April 2002, offers an update on the recent negotiations finalising phase II of the ongoing WTO agriculture negotiations. The 4-7 February special session of the Committee on Agriculture (CoA) included the fifth and final informal meeting in phase II as well as the third and final formal meeting in the phase. Furthermore, the paper introduces the new 12-month work programme for the next phase – dubbed ‘phase III’ or ‘modalities phase’2 – which was recently agreed by Members at a 26 March special session of the CoA, while further trying to provide a brief analysis of the process as well as negotiation dynamics during the forthcoming stage of WTO agriculture negotiations. Lastly, the report briefly looks at policy formulation processes currently underway in the preparation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) as well as at the Sixth Conference of the Parties (COP-6) of the Conference on Biological Diversity (CBD), which both have potential implications for the agriculture negotiations under the Doha mandate. This report is divided into four sections:
• Section 1 is a brief introduction setting the agriculture negotiations in the overall context of activities at the WTO.
• Section 2 focuses on the themes within the final stage of phase II negotiations that have been identified as showing most significance for its recent work on influencing European trade policy-making, providing descriptive and analytical detail of expressed positions.
• Section 3 looks ahead at the emerging issues in connection with the future negotiations in agriculture during the ‘modalities phase’.
• Section 4 is aimed at providing an overview on agriculture-related policy making processes in relevant fora within and outside the WTO.
The methodology used in compiling this report combined comprehensive in-house analytical work as well as extensive outreach to country delegates based in Geneva and representatives of local non-governmental organisations. As already provided in the previous report, the quick references now include information on the importance of trade issues for WTO Member countries. This is designed to assist readers in assessing the relative importance of trade issues for that country. These are included as appendices. To enable readers to better understand the scope and function of the negotiation instrument ‘modalities, excerpts of the 1993 modalities used during the Uruguay round negotiations has also been annexed to the report. The non-papers used in writing this report could not be annexed for reasons of confidentiality.