WTO: 2007 NEWS ITEMS
Agriculture negotiations chairperson Ambassador Crawford Falconer and non-agricultural market access (NAMA) chairperson Ambassador Don Stephenson circulated their revised draft “modalities” on 17 July 2007. The drafts are based on WTO member governments’ latest positions in the negotiations and are an assessment of what might be agreed for the formulas for cutting tariffs and trade-distorting agricultural subsidies, and related provisions.
> Negotiations, implementation and development: the Doha agenda
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Lamy’s speeches
The two
papers were circulated at the same time because members link the two
subjects. Their release kicks off another intensive series of meetings for
members to try to reach agreement, and probably to amend the draft.
The drafts are by no means the final word. They put the possible areas of
agreement on paper so that members can react and further revise the texts.
They are drawn from WTO member governments’ positions over several months in
the latest phase of the negotiations. They are the negotiations’
chairpersons’ judgements of what governments might be able to agree — based
on what members have proposed and debated in over seven years of
negotiations and their responses to the chairs’ previous papers.
Therefore, 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 trade, but what might be accepted by all sides in the
negotiations.
> Press release: Lamy backs agriculture, NAMA texts — urges closing the gaps
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