Agra Europe
A framework for a second year of agriculture negotiations at the World Trade Organisation was agreed in Geneva on Tuesday.
The work programme outlines subjects to be tackled through specific negotiated changes to the WTO's agriculture agreement, and was concluded one day ahead of schedule.
The timetable also signals the start of a more difficult phase of talks. "We have to stop talking about what we're going to do and get on and do it," said the EU's chief negotiator, David Roberts.
Phase 2 to run until March 2002
After a year in which more than 120 governments made proposals for changes to the 1993 agriculture agreement, the "phase two" work programme will run until March 2002.
This straddles the November scheduled ministerial meeting in Qatar where the EU, Japan, US and Cairns Group among others hope to launch a new, broad round of trade talks to follow up the 1994 Uruguay Round. This initiative is however being widely resisted by developing countries.
The programme includes ten topics for specific negotiation;
* Import tariffs
* Tariff quota administration
* Trade-distorting domestic support measures (the amber box)
* Export subsidies
* Export credits
* State trading enterprises
* Export restrictions
* Rural development
* Food safety
* Food security
'Non-trade' concerns
The inclusion of the latter three topics appears to indicate that the debate over whether "non-trade concerns" should be included has been finally settled. Roberts denied that these would be an obstacle to reform, insisting that "finding appropriate mechanisms to resolve legitimate non-trade concerns is the key to making progress."
However, the ten topics are not priorities, said officials, but designed to kick-off the initial meetings, to be held on May 21-23 and July 23-27.
The new chair of the agriculture special negotiating sessions, Thai ambassador Apiradi Tantraporn, will now identify how to tackle these issues and in which order.
Specific proposals
"Now is the time for people to put up specific proposals and see if they can get support for them," said a senior US Trade Representative official.
EU officials expect to submit proposals on subjects which already have a structure within the negotiations, such as export subsidies, more quickly than the new issues, such as export credits.
Recognising the importance of developing countries, the work programme also makes specific reference to "special and differential treatment" as "an integral part of all elements of the negotiations." This is a clause also aimed at eastern European economies in transition.
Farm Bill and MTR loom large
The US farm official also warned that the "real challenge" for his government would be to draft a new Farm Bill for 2002 accommodating the ongoing WTO talks. But the same is true of the EU, which faces a mid-term review (MTR) of its Agenda 2000 programme starting next year.
The pace of progress partly depends on whether Qatar is a success. "Clearly agriculture negotiations will go on anyway," said one senior diplomat, "but how much reform we can get in isolation [from other economic sectors] remains to be seen."
"Everyone seems to want to measure the success of the Uruguay Round by how much they have exported," said Roberts. "If we all want to export and none of us wants to import, we are setting ourselves an unachievable goal."
Copyright 2001 Agra Europe Ltd.:
