The two papers were circulated at about the same time because members link the two subjects. After further discussion in the negotiating groups for each subject, members intend to move to a new phase where these and some other areas of the Doha Round can be negotiated in comparison with each other with the hope that agreement can be reached in the next few weeks.

Eventually members want to negotiate an acceptable balance between the depths of cuts (the “level of ambition”) in agricultural and non-agricultural tariffs and agricultural subsidies as well as the size of cuts that they desire in each area.

So the drafts are still not the final word. Drawn from WTO member governments’ positions over several months of the negotiations, these are not “proposals” from the New Zealand and Canadian ambassadors in the sense that “proposals” are normally understood. In other words, these are not the chairs’ opinions of what would be “good” for world agricultural and non-agricultural trade, but what might be accepted by all sides in the negotiations.