At the start, New Zealand Ambassador David Walker, who chairs the talks, reminded negotiators of the importance of the year.

“In terms of this year,” he said, “following on from the Ministerial Conference that we had at the end of last year, and consistent with the express wishes of the ministers there, this is, of course, a very important year because to fulfil the ministers’ objective we need to conclude our work this year. So I trust that everybody is ready and looking forward to engage in the work of the group in that spirit.”

Has already outlined his plans for fortnights of negotiations in February and March 2010.

The 21 and 22 January sessions saw presentations from Australia and Canada on domestic support and from the US on market access. Rep of Korea, Argentina and Uruguay also introduced new papers on this highly technical exercise.

The work on data and templates (explained below) is intended to be neutral, ie, it does not affect how much more market access countries will give, and the subsidies they will cut.

Discussions on the remaining “modalities” issues will be included in the February and March sessions. They are about the level of ambition.
  

Audio

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

The chair’s statements:

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 latest texts and a number of related issues can be found with explanations here, including what “the text” is and says, and a “jargon buster”.

The current phase of the negotiations is about “modalities”, explained here.

Explanation

Explanations of the issues are available for the chairperson’s 2008 drafts and reports.

Templates and data. Part of the technical work is on organizing the data necessary to calculate commitments, which will be listed in “schedules” of commitments. Electronic forms or tables will be used to present base data — data to be used as the starting point for calculating commitments — in a way that is transparent and verifiable. Eventually they will be used to design “templates” for how the commitments will be presented.

Among the data needed are domestic consumption, for calculating the tariff quotas on sensitive products, and values of production for calculating domestic support commitments.

The technical work follows the draft “modalities” text of December 2008 and is in two steps:

Step 1: considering what “base data” are needed under the present draft “modalities” — what is already available, what will need to be “constructed”, and whether the draft “modalities” says how this should be done. This step would also include the question of whether supporting tables — tables displaying the data and how they are derived — are needed and what their format would be.

Step 2: developed from step 1, designing “templates” or blank forms to be used for the commitments resulting from the Doha Round negotiations, and for any supporting data required. Parts of the data could be presented before, during or after “modalities” have been agreed.

(Chairperson Walker has also referred to an eventual step 3: filling in the numbers.)

Schedules: In general, a WTO member’s list of commitments on market access (bound tariff rates, access to services markets). Goods schedules can include commitments on agricultural subsidies and domestic support. Services commitments include bindings on national treatment.

Templates: Here, blank forms prepared for the schedules of commitments, and for data used to calculate the commitments. Some of the data will be in “supporting tables” attached to the schedules of commitments.

Modalities: A way to proceed. In WTO negotiations, modalities set broad outlines — such as formulas or approaches for tariff reductions — for final commitments. In agriculture, the modalities include formulas and approaches for cutting domestic support and export subsidies as well.

The three pillars: the main areas covered by the agriculture negotiations — export competition (export subsidies and related issues), domestic support and market access.