WTO: 2008 NEWS ITEMS

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Ambassador Falconer was responding to members’ reports on their consultations and their comments. During the meeting he described three options for proceeding and for revising his draft “modalities” text. Some responded that they would need at least the week of 21–25 April to approach agreement on the issues they were discussing.

Use these links to download audio files or to listen to what he said in the meeting.

Audio: Chairperson Falconer’s opening statement, 15 April 2008

Audio: Chairperson Falconer’s comments at end of morning session, 15 April 2008

Audio: Chairperson Falconer’s comments, at start of afternoon session, 15 April 2008

Audio: Chairperson Falconer’s comments at end of afternoon session, 15 April 2008, part 1
(Due to a technical fault, a few seconds of recording were lost at this point. Here, the chairperson speaks of “heavy lifting” among some members to try to reach a compromise, particularly among six countries working on Sensitive Products.)

Audio: Chairperson Falconer’s comments at end of afternoon session, 15 April 2008, part 2

Audio: Chairperson Falconer’s comments, at start of afternoon session, 18 April 2008

Audio: Chairperson Falconer’s concluding comments, 18 April 2008

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This meeting

This was an informal agriculture negotiations meeting of the full membership, officially an “Informal Open-Ended Special Session” of the Agriculture Committee. It began on Tuesday 15 April and was adjourned at the end of the day partly because a number of delegations were still on the list waiting to speak, partly to give some members time for their on-going consultations , and partly to allow the membership to advise the chairperson on how to deal with some loose ends in his next revision of the text. The meeting resumed on Friday 18 April.

It was held at the end of another round of meetings of 37 representative delegations in “Room E” (see links to explanations below), when negotiators took a final look at the 8 February 2008 draft “modalities” text.

The chairperson refers to a number of issues that are explained here, including what “the text” is and says, and a “jargon buster”. He refers in particular to two issues.

The first issue concerns a compromise proposal from a “group of six delegations” for estimating domestic consumption to be used as a basis for expanding tariff quotas on sensitive products. These are Australia, Brazil, Canada, the EU, Japan and the US (which speaks on the group’s behalf). They are part of the “Friends of the Chair”, which Ambassador Falconer asked to develop a method for dealing with this technical question. Other Friends of the Chair are: Argentina, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and Uruguay.

The second issue is “Room E”, also part of the “multilateral process”. Ultimately, the current phase of the negotiations is about “modalities”, explained here.

The chairperson also mentions “Accra”, the twelfth session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XII) in Accra, Ghana, 20–25 April 2008.

THE STORY SO FAR

2000: Agriculture negotiations launched (March). See backgrounder

2001: Doha Development Agenda launched. Agriculture included (November)

2004: “Framework” agreed (August)

2005: Further agreements in Hong Kong Ministerial Conference (December)

2006: Draft modalities (June)

2007: Revised draft modalities (July)

2007–2008: Intensive negotiations with working documents (September-January)

2008: Revised draft modalities (February)
  

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