Topics handled by WTO committees and agreements
Issues covered by the WTO’s committees and agreements

Agriculture

The WTO’s Agriculture Agreement was negotiated in the 1986–94 Uruguay Round and is a significant first step towards fairer competition and a less distorted sector. WTO member governments agreed to improve market access and reduce trade-distorting subsidies in agriculture. In general, these commitments were phased in over a six years from 1995 (10 years for developing countries). The Agriculture Committee oversees the agreement’s implementation.

> Agriculture Information Management System
a database of WTO information on agriculture, including notified information and questions and answers in the committee

Meanwhile, members also agreed to continue the reform. Further talks, which are separate from the committee’s regular work, began in 2000. They were included in the broader negotiating agenda set at the 2001 Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar.


Click for Doha Development Agenda gatewaySee also:
> Negotiations, implementation and development: the Doha agenda
> The agriculture negotiations
> Cotton, including the sub-committee
> Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration

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See also:
> Sanitary and phytosanitary measures
(i.e. food safety and animal-plant health)

 

  DISPUTES
> List of disputes citing the agriculture agreement

 

  VIDEOS

 


News  back to top

> See news of the agriculture negotiations

> See news of the Cotton Sub-Committee

  

Introduction  back to top

In a nutshell: how to follow current issues in agriculture
Summary and links to follow latest developments

Introduction to agricultural trade in the WTO
Links to the agriculture section of the WTO guide “Understanding the WTO”
Includes: New rules; Market access; Domestic support; Exports; Net food importers
(Click your browser’s “back” button to return to this page.)

Fact sheet
> “The boxes” in domestic support

 

The mandate  back to top

Summary of the Agriculture Agreement
A technical summary

Explanation of the Agriculture Agreement
A more detailed 8-part technical introduction
Also available in pdf format together with the legal text. Download: WTO Agreements series: Agriculture

Browse or download the text of the Agriculture Agreement from the legal texts gateway

Find decisions of WTO bodies concerning the Agriculture Agreement in the Analytical Index — Guide to WTO Law and Practice

The Doha Implementation Decision, 2001
Ministers’ decisions on developing countries’ difficulties implementing the current WTO Agriculture Agreement.

 

The Agriculture Committee and official documents  back to top

Work on this subject is handled by the Agriculture Committee, which reports to the Goods Council. The work is officially recorded in the committee’s annual reports to the Goods Council and in the Secretariat’s summary reports. The current chair is .

> More on the Agriculture Committee and official documents

Subscribe here to receive all unrestricted agriculture documents by e-mail, usually about once a week, normally only in the original language (English, French or Spanish).

See also:
> agriculture news, above

 

Members’ transparency toolkit  back to top

Notification formats, handbook, links to members’ commitments and other aids for members’ transparency work in agriculture

  

Food security
How well is agricultural trade policy providing secure supplies of food? Find accounts of work in the WTO, analysis and debate here

 

Events, workshops and training  back to top

> Technical assistance activities in 2012

> Agriculture notifications workshop 18–21 September 2012 (English), 12-15 November 2012 (French).
> Programme
   
Information session with Ban Ki-moon’s food security envoy 18 November 2010
> Trade important for food security, UN specialist tells agriculture delegations
 
> Agriculture notifications workshop 22–24 September 2010 (English), 16-18 November 2010 (Spanish), 27-29 September 2011 (French).
> Presentation of event
> Programme
  
UN rapporteur and WTO delegates debate the right to food 2 July 2009
> News story
  
UN rapporteur Dr De Schutter and Mr Lamy debate the right to food 11 May 2009
> Read the summary
>  Watch the video (in French)

  

External links  back to top

Observer organizations in the Agriculture Committee
 COMMITTEE

Agriculture Committee meetings and documents

4-5 March 2015 regular meeting
>Agenda
> Documents for this meeting
(Members should sign in after following that link. Documents marked “R” in the search results are not available publicly yet)

 

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