A special World Trade Organization meeting on agriculture in Geneva ended its second day March 24 with an agreement on a detailed program of work and a formalized timetable of meetings and proposal deadlines stretching into 2001.
The members' failure thus far to choose a permanent chair to lead the negotiations had no effect on the atmosphere of the meeting, which was businesslike and constructive, a WTO official in Geneva told BNA. New Zealand's Roger Farrell was asked to head the session after the European Union refused to join a consensus in favor of Brazilian WTO Ambassador Celso Amorim as negotiating chair.
One decision taken by the meeting was to focus on technical work, which will include the compilation of information on members' implementation of farm trade commitments already made under the Uruguay Round accords. The information will include the effects of subsidy and protection reductions, and the experience of poorer WTO members and those that are net food importers.
Between now and June, when the next negotiating session will be held, the secretariat will prepare a series of reports on these topics and member countries may also submit papers on them. The agendas of each negotiating session will include time for discussion of technical data.
The timetable approved by the meeting for the first phase of the negotiations calls for the submission of proposals by WTO members by the end of December, although there is room for flexibility, the WTO spokesman said. Members are free to add to their proposals beyond December, just as long as there is sufficient time for all parties to review the proposals in time for a "stocktaking" meeting scheduled for next March.
Future negotiating sessions, to be held in June, September, and November of 2000, will be held either directly before or directly after the agriculture committee's regular sessions.
In addition, it is possible that a meeting will be held at the end of January 2001 so that members can offer their first responses to the proposals that have been made.
Among the general statements made about countries' positions on agriculture, members of the Cairns Group of agriculture exporting nations said that they see the current negotiations as "stand alone" because a trade-off was made in the Uruguay Round between modest farm trade reforms and a commitment to resume agriculture talks thereafter, the WTO official said.
The European Union, Japan, and South Korea contended that a comprehensive negotiating round--upon which WTO members have so far been unable to agree--will be needed to achieve a new agriculture accord. Eastern and Central European countries stated that the talks should also examine the special problems of countries in transition, and how to deal with the effect of commitments made in current prices on countries that later suffer high inflation rates.
Copyright c 2000 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., Washington D.C.:
