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Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues (Jul24/04) Geneva, 3 Jul (D. Ravi Kanth) — The African Group (AG) on 1 July submitted a “draft text on agriculture” to the World Trade Organization’s Doha agriculture negotiating body while disassociating from the parallel informal process being conducted by Brazil, seeking “substantial outcomes”, including “policy space” and a permanent solution for public stockholding (PSH) programs for food security purposes for all developing countries, said people familiar with the development. Despite an informal meeting conducted by Brazil on 1 July, the African Group on the same day tabled its proposal, insisting that the Committee on Agriculture in Special Session (COASS), the existing Doha agriculture negotiating body, shall remain as the mandated forum, said people familiar with the development. “This draft text is submitted for Members’ consideration in the Special Session of the Committee on Agriculture, aiming to further the dialogue and negotiations within the framework established,” the African Group said. The unrestricted submission (Job/AG/260) by the African Group has proposed a positive and forward-looking agenda to be accomplished by the WTO’s 14th ministerial conference (MC14), which is expected to be held in Cameroon in 2026. “The African Group, comprising 45 Members, remains deeply committed to achieving substantial outcomes in the agriculture negotiations, reflecting our collective resolve to advance and preserve the integrity of our longstanding positions,” it said. According to the African Group, the latest proposal is built “upon the Chair text presented at MC13, which serves as the foundation due to the high degree of convergence achieved in the weeks leading up to the conference.” The African Group said it “believes that this text will garner positive responses and active engagement from the Membership, aligning with our enduring expectations for the WTO to deliver meaningful and effective outcomes in the agriculture sector.” DRAFT AGRICULTURE TEXT The draft text on agriculture presented by the African Group remains in square brackets. The preamble to the text emphasizes “the critical role that a rules-based, non-discriminatory, open, fair, inclusive, equitable and transparent multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core can play in addressing contemporary challenges faced by the food and agricultural systems including climate change and its impacts.” The African Group expressed deep concern that “the share of people facing chronic hunger in the world was more than 9% and moderate or severe food insecurity in the world was around 29% of the global population, concentrated predominantly in developing countries, including least developed countries (LDCs), as recently estimated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.” The African Group underscored the need for “policy space” to make progress towards the achievement of a fair, equitable and market-oriented agricultural trading system, ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition, promoting sustainable agriculture and food systems, in an equitable manner, and promoting the adoption of resilient agricultural practices. It said such progress can lead to the “fulfilment of Sustainable Development Goal 2 of the United Nations, taking into account the interests of small-scale food and agriculture producers in developing countries.” The 45-member group reiterated its “commitment to take concrete steps to promote domestic production, facilitate trade and improve the functioning and long-term resilience of global markets for food and agriculture, with a view to achieving equitable rules that enhance global food security and ensuring that the agriculture sector has the policy tools to contribute towards addressing contemporary sustainability challenges.” It expressed concern over the lack of progress “on most agriculture negotiating issues to date and recognizing that much work remains to be done especially in areas where mandates are overdue to successfully conclude the negotiations.” Against this backdrop, the African Group called on members to “commit to continue the agriculture negotiations in accordance with the reform objective of Article 20 of the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) and subsequent Ministerial and other Decisions on agriculture, in particular building on the progress made under the current Doha Round of negotiations.” It reminded the major developed countries, including the United States, the European Union, and the Group of Ten (G10) farm-defensive countries led by Switzerland, Norway, and Japan, that the Doha Round of negotiations remains on the table. The African Group called on members to acknowledge “the Report prepared by the Chair of the Special Session of the Committee on Agriculture (CoA-SS) under his own responsibility, which summarizes the state of play in the negotiations.” It called on Members to “welcome the work done by the CoA-SS as reflected in the Chair’s Report and commit to revitalize and intensify the negotiations on outstanding issues. The negotiations shall build on the work undertaken thus far and be based on discussions among Members, and their existing and future submissions.” It urged members to “reaffirm the importance of predictable agricultural and input markets and of facilitating trade in these products, including by reducing the time and procedural costs related to their importation and exportation, in conformity with WTO agreements.” More importantly, the African Group said unequivocally that “special and differential treatment for developing countries shall be an integral part of all elements of the negotiations and shall be embodied in the Schedule of concessions and commitments and as appropriate in the rules and disciplines to be negotiated, so as to be operationally effective and to enable developing countries to effectively take account of their development needs, including food security and rural development.” Against the backdrop of an apparent assault by the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized countries on the continuation of special and differential treatment (S&DT), the African Group emphasized that “protection of existing S&D provisions and expansion of S&D will be part of the negotiations. LDCs shall be exempted from undertaking reduction commitments.” The African Group called on members to “commit to pursue and intensify negotiations on domestic support with a view to reducing substantially and progressively trade-distorting support in a fair and equitable manner, by targeting the most inequitable elements first, and improving disciplines in accordance with the reform objective in the AoA within a reasonable timeframe to be agreed by Members.” It demanded that the negotiations on domestic support “shall preserve the special and differential treatment of developing country Members and LDCs, including support to low-income or resource-poor farmers, as well as to encourage diversification from growing illicit crops. The negotiations shall also agree modalities of flexibilities for LDCs and NFIDCs.” On market access, the African Group called on members to “commit to pursue and intensify negotiations on agricultural market access with a view to reducing substantially and progressively protection in a fair and equitable manner to improve market access opportunities for all Members and improving disciplines in accordance with the reform objective in the AoA and within a reasonable timeframe to be agreed by Members.” Further, it said “these negotiations shall take into account exporting Members’ interests and importing Members’ sensitivities, including non-trade concerns.” On the crucial issue of public stockholding programs for food security purposes (PSH), the African Group called for a permanent solution on PSH by MC14 based on the “Bali Ministerial Decision (WT/MIN(13)/38-WT/L/913), the General Council Decision (WT/L/939), and the Nairobi Ministerial Decision (WT/MIN(15)/44-WT/L/979).” They demanded that the permanent solution must be “available to all developing country Members.” “Public stockholding programmes shall not distort trade or adversely affect the food security of other Members.” On the Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) for developing countries, the African Group said “pursuant to the Nairobi Ministerial Decision (WT/MIN(15)/43-WT/L/978), Members shall pursue and intensify negotiations in Dedicated Sessions of the CoA-SS on a special safeguard mechanism for developing country Members, as envisaged under paragraph 7 of the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration (WT/MIN(05)/DEC), and to which the developing country Members will have the right to have recourse under paragraph 1 of the Nairobi Ministerial Decision.” On export competition, the African Group underscored the need for members “to continue negotiations to enhance disciplines on export credits, export credit guarantees or insurance programmes, agricultural exporting state trading enterprises and international food aid and other measures with equivalent effect to prevent circumvention of export subsidy elimination commitments and non-commercial transactions commitments.” “The negotiations shall take into account and preserve the benefits of LDCs and NFIDCs to the provisions of Article 9.4 of the Agreement on Agriculture. Members will agree on the elements and the methodology of implementation of the decision according to the Timeline of Implementation section.” On the cotton trade-related component, the African Group called on members to “commit to pursue and intensify negotiations on cotton trade-related measures based on Members’ submissions, and pursuant to the cotton-related elements of the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration (WT/MIN(05)/DEC), as complemented by the Bali Cotton Ministerial Decision (WT/MIN(13)/41-WT/L/916), and the Nairobi Cotton Ministerial Decision (WT/MIN(15)/46-WT/L/981) to address it ambitiously, expeditiously and specifically within the agriculture negotiations.” It also emphasized that these negotiations “shall seek to reduce substantially and progressively the trade- distorting domestic support for cotton by limiting the Aggregate Measurement of Support (AMS) to cotton, significantly reducing Cotton Blue Box, disciplining Cotton Green Box and the transfer of support from one box to another.” IMPLEMENTATION TIMELINE As part of confidence-building measures and “consistent with the reaffirmed mandates of the Nairobi Ministerial Decision,” the African Group emphasized that “the outcomes on PSH, SSM and Cotton (both trade-related and development assistance components) and their implementation shall be accorded priority in these negotiations.” It has proposed the following timelines for outcomes to be accomplished at MC14 in Cameroon: * The Trade Negotiations Committee shall regularly review progress in these negotiations. * Senior Officials will review the progress achieved in the negotiations especially on PSH, SSM and Cotton, one year after MC13, particularly in relation to the definition of the elements and the methodology of implementation of the reform and make recommendations for the way forward. * Members shall adopt an intermediate framework of the agreement four months before MC14. This framework shall provide a comprehensive view of the basic structures of the agreement or other outcomes to be delivered by MC14 including a permanent solution on PSH and may include texts with different levels of maturity. * Members shall adopt a decision on modalities by MC14 and shall adopt a permanent solution on PSH in accordance with paragraph 9 by MC14. * Modalities of each respective negotiating topic shall be implemented in a timeframe to be decided by Members taking into account the possible differences in maturity of discussions in negotiating topics. In conclusion, the African Group appears to have not only presented a robust proposal but has also moved away from the other proposals on the table, said people who asked not to be quoted. +
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