Methodology for the Identification of Special Products (SP) and Products for Elegibility Under the Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) by Developing Countries
by Luisa E. Bernal
Agricultural Trade and Sustainable Development Series • Issue Paper 4
While it is widely recognised that developing countries as a whole would benefit from freer agricultural trade, some fear that most of the new opportunities the Doha Round is set to bring would be captured by a few middle-income countries and large food exporters. Lower income countries would gain only little and might even lose from further liberalisation. Many still have large rural populations composed of small and resource-poor farmers with limited access to infrastructure and few employment alternatives. Thus, these countries are concerned that domestic rural populations employed in import-competing sectors might be negatively affected by further trade liberalisation, becoming increasingly vulnerable to market instability and import surges as tariff barriers are removed.
The present Issue Paper (No. 4) on “Methodology for the Identification of Special Products and Products for the Eligibility under the Special Safeguard Mechanism by Developing Countries”, by Luisa Bernal, is intended as a contribution to the internal discussion on SP and SSM in developing countries. The paper, which builds on the experience of six country studies conducted by ICTSD in Barbados, Honduras, Kenya, Pakistan, Peru and Sri Lanka, proposes a methodology to help developing countries establish their national lists of Special Products to be negotiated at the WTO. It provides a comprehensive set of indicators at the national and sub-national level to identify the intended beneficiaries and assess the importance of specific products from a food/livelihood security and rural development perspective. It also highlights the need for policymakers to take into consideration issues such as substitute products, vulnerability to competition from imported products, or current levels of protection when finalising their lists and ranking the identified products.