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As a result, his next revision will now definitely not be circulated before the week of 12 May, he said in this meeting of the full membership. But the tight schedule represents a compromise between members wanting longer and those who do not want to wait any more, and reflects the time pressure all are under.

SEE ALSO:
> 15 and 18 April meetings
> 10 and 14 March meetings
> More on the modalities phase

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

Audio: Chairperson Falconer’s opening statement

Audio: Chairperson Falconer’s concluding comments

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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.

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.

One is 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.

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

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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