Issues covered by the WTO's committees and agreements 

AGRICULTURE NEGOTIATIONS: BACKGROUNDER

The proposals received in Phase 2

AS OF 1 DECEMBER 2004
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This briefing document explains current agricultural issues raised before and in the current negotiations. It has been prepared by the Information and Media Relations Division of the WTO Secretariat to help public understanding about the agriculture negotiations. It is not an official record of the negotiations.

Most of these are proposals or elaborations of Phase 1 proposals. A few are questions on others’ proposals. Most are off-the-record “non-papers”.

 

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This briefing document explains current agricultural issues raised before and in the current negotiations. It has been prepared by the Information and Media Relations Division of the WTO Secretariat to help public understanding about the agriculture negotiations. It is not an official record of the negotiations.

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Proposals 

Tariff quota administration

  • Australia: Tariff quota administration
  • Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Kenya, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Zimbabwe: Tariff rate quotas
  • EU: Tariff rate quotas administration
  • Japan: Questions on TRQ administration
  • Switzerland: Administration of tariff rate quotas (TRQ) — the case for auctioning

 

Tariffs

  • Australia: Tariffs
  • Japan: Tariff Quota Commitment
  • Japan: Questions on tariff
  • MERCOSUR, Chile and Bolivia: Market access: ensuring the continuity of the reform process

 

Amber box

  • Australia: Amber box support
  • EU: Amber box
  • Japan: Questions on Amber Box

 

Special and differential treatment

  • Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Indonesia, Kenya, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Venezuela and Zimbabwe: Special and differential treatment in agriculture — “establishing the objectives”

 

Export subsidies

  • Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Suriname: Domestic support and export competition
  • Cairns Group: Export subsidies
  • Israel: Export subsidies
  • Japan: Export enhancing measures — export subsidies
  • Japan: Questions on export subsidies
  • Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Venezuela and Zimbabwe: Export subsidies
  • Switzerland: Export subsidies: modalities for further commitments to reduce export subsidies

 

Export credits

  • Australia: Export credits
  • EU: Export credits
  • Japan: Export enhancing measures — export credits
  • Japan: Questions on export credits
  • United States: Export credit guarantee programmes

 

State trading enterprises

  • Japan : State trading enterprises
  • Japan : Questions on state trading enterprises
  • United States : Disciplines on export state trading enterprises
  • United States : Disciplines on import state trading enterprises

 

Export restrictions

  • Japan: Export prohibitions and restrictions
  • Japan: Questions on export restrictions
  • United States: Disciplines on export taxes

 

Food security

  • Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Kenya, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Sri Lanka, Venezuela and Zimbabwe: Food security
  • Japan: International environment surrounding agricultural trade and food security
  • Japan: Questions on food security
  • Peru: Food security
  • United States: Food security

 

Food safety

  • EU: Food safety
  • Japan: Consumers’ concern on food safety and quality

 

Rural development

  • Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Kenya, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Zimbabwe: Rural development
  • Cyprus: Rural development
  • Japan: Importance of agriculture in rural areas (rural development)
  • Japan: Questions on rural development
  • Norway: Rural development

 

Geographical indications

  • EU: Geographical indications
  • Japan: Questions on geographical indications
  • Switzerland: Geographical indications and agriculture

 

Green box

  • Argentina: Green box measures: approach for a work programme
  • Cyprus: Green box
  • Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Kenya, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe: Green box
  • EU: Green box
  • Japan: Domestic support (Green Box)
  • Japan: Questions on Green Box
  • Namibia: Green box measures

 

Blue box

  • Cairns Group: Blue box
  • Japan: Questions on Blue Box

 

Special agricultural safeguard

  • Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, the Philippines and Thailand: Special and differential treatment for developing countries: transitional instruments to expeditiously countervail subsidized imports (SDCM)
  • Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Kenya, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Senegal, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe: “An appropriate safeguard mechanism for developing countries”
  • Japan: A new safeguard measure
  • Japan: Questions on special agricultural safeguard
  • Namibia: Special agricultural safeguard
  • Norway: Special safeguards
  • Switzerland: WTO Agreement on Agriculture — special safeguard

 

Environment

  • Cairns Group: Environment
  • Japan: The role of agriculture to provide environmental benefits
  • Norway: Environment
  • Japan: Questions on environment

 

Trade preferences

  • African Group: Trade preferences
  • EU: Tariff preferences for developing countries
  • Namibia: Trade preferences
  • Paraguay: Trade preferences — Appropriate tariff treatment for the exports of landlocked countries
  • Swaziland: Trade preferences
  • Japan: Questions on trade preferences

 

Food aid

  • 7 developing countries (Cuba, Egypt, Grenada, Mauritius, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Uganda): Food aid
  • EU: Food aid
  • MERCOSUR (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay): Food aid
  • Namibia: Food aid
  • Norway: Food aid
  • Japan: A possible framework of International food stockholding
  • Japan: Questions on food aid

 

Consumer information and labelling

  • EU: Consumer information and labelling
  • Switzerland: Consumer information and labelling
  • Switzerland: Welfare of breeding cattle — example of a non-trade concern
  • Japan: Questions on consumer information and labelling

 

Sectoral initiatives

  • Canada: Sectoral initiatives

 

Development Box

  • 9 developing countries (Cuba, Dominican Rep, El Salvador, Honduras, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe): The Development Box
  • Japan: Questions on Development Box
  • Mauritius: Development Box
  • Switzerland: Building a Development Box in the WTO rules on agriculture?

 

Single commodity producers

  • African Group: Proposal on trade in agricultural commodities and the concerns of single commodity exporters (SCEs)
  • Japan: Questions on single commodity producers/small island developing countries
  • Mauritius: Single commodity exporters (SCEs)

 

Small island developing countries

  • Dominica, Fiji, Jamaica, Madagascar, Mauritius, Papua New Guinea, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago: Small island developing states
  • Mauritius: Small island developing states

 

Special and differential treatment

  • African Group, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Kenya, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka: Special and differential provisions
  • Bolivia: Special and differential treatment: alternative crops
  • CARICOM: Special and differential treatment
  • Colombia: Special and differential treatment and the substitution of illicit crops
  • India: Special and differential treatment for developing countries in the Agreement on Agriculture
  • Mauritius: Special and differential treatment

 

Additional issues

  • CARICOM: Non-trade concerns
  • CARICOM: Food aid
  • CARICOM: Green Box subsidies
  • CARICOM: A special agricultural safeguard mechanism for developing countries and small developing economies
  • CARICOM: WTO negotiations on agriculture — trade preferences
  • Mauritius: Green Box
  • New Zealand: Tariff quota expansion

 

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Technical submissions received during Phase 2 

G/AG/NG/W/186

Mauritius: Second International Conference on Non-Trade Concerns — 20 July 2001

G/AG/NG/W/187

Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovak Republic: Aspects of non-trade concerns in (post) transition economies — 5 December 2001

 

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