Implications for Brazil of the July 2008 Draft Agricultural Modalities
by Nassar, A, Cabral da Costa, C, and Chiodi, L
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Implications for Brazil of the July 2008 Draft Agricultural Modalities PDF • 1.63 MBBrazil is recognized today as one of the most important countries in the Doha Development Round (DDR) negotiations. Not merely is it one of the leaders of the G-20, one of the most influential negotiating coalitions, it has also been taking part in all spheres of the Doha Round negotiations, both formal and informal. Although this paper will also examine the likely impact of the Doha Round on Brazilian domestic support levels and tariffs, Brazil’s position in all three pillars of the Doha Round agricultural negotiations - domestic support, market access and export competition - is offensive1. Brazil is one of the world’s largest agricultural producers and exporters and aims to reduce protection levels in order to be able to expand its agricultural export potential.
With the end of the bottom-up approach, in which the WTO (World Trade Organization) Members defined the parameters for agricultural modalities, the top-down approach, based on documents prepared by the chair of the Special Session of the Committee on Agriculture, has prevailed in negotiations. Based on the last version of the agricultural modalities document of July 10th 2008 (referred to in this document as the Draft Modalities), this paper seeks to:
(i) Evaluate the implications of commitments set forth in the modalities on domestic support and market access for Brazil’s agricultural sector: in other words, how do the proposed disciplines affect applied levels of domestic support and tariffs?
(ii) Discuss whether Brazil’s offensive interests will be satisfied. Are the disciplines proposed for export competition, domestic support and market access for Brazil’s agriculture sector likely to create trade opportunities for Brazilian agribusiness exporters? As most of the parameters for the three pillars are already well defined in the last Draft Modalities, this paper provides a critical analysis of the level of ambition within the document.
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[...] ICTSD publica documento sobre as implicações do esboço de texto sobre modalidades agrícolas de julho de 2008 para o Brasil O paper intitulado “Implications for Brazil of the July 2008 Draft Agricultural Modalities”, produzido em parceria pelo ICTSD, IPC e IFPRI explora as implicações do texto sobre modalidades agrícolas apresentado pelo presidente das negociações agrícolas da OMC, Crawford Falconer, em julho de 2008. O documento faz uma análise de como as políticas domésticas e de exportação brasileiras serão afetadas por um possível acordo de Doha em agricultura. Tal estudo é parte de uma série de documentos que analisam como os esboços de texto sobre modalidades poderiam impactar uma dos Membros da OMC. Este documento encontra-se disponível em: http://ictsd.net/i/publications/33784/. [...]