WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION
G/AG/NG/W/135
12 March 2001
(01-1176)
Committee on Agriculture
Special Session
Original: French
Negotiating Proposals by the Democratic Republic of the Congo
1. Market access
- Simplification and transparency of the tariff system;
- Substantial reduction of tariffs and tariff peaks by developed countries;
- Abolition of border protection measures to enable bound tariffs to fulfil their role;
- Removal of the possibility of using special safeguard measures on agricultural products from developing countries;
- Technical and financial assistance for the standardization and packaging of products.
Special and differential treatment
- Consideration given not only to a country's level of economic development and geographical situation but also to cases of force majeure (war, natural disasters) for the implementation of rules and commitments.
2. Domestic support
- Inclusion in the development box of all the financial undertakings and efforts of least-developed countries;
- Improvement of the Green Box;
- Improvement of the Amber Box: possibility for the least-developed countries to go beyond their base level AMS.
Special and differential treatment
- Extension of the implementation period.
3. Export subsidies
- Elimination of all forms of export subsidy;
- Initial reduction by 60 per cent of the final Uruguay Round commitments;
- Accelerated process of reduction leading to zero of residual subsidies;
- Denunciation of the myth that export subsidies are a solution to problems of food security in developing countries;
- Liberalization of agricultural trade and elimination of export subsidies are the genuine solution to food security problems;
- Need for food aid to be granted to net importing developing countries without the attachment of trade conditions and wholly in the form of grants;
- Abolition of export taxes.
Special and differential treatment
- Extension of the implementation period.
Non-trade concerns
- Rights of countries to address non-trade concerns according to rules previously established by all Members;
- Market forces alone are an insufficient basis on which to address non-trade concerns;
- Difference in non-trade concerns between developed and developing countries. The main non-trade concerns of the Democratic Republic of the Congo are as follows:
- Rural development (production, jobs, income).
- Poverty reduction.
- Food security.
- Environmental protection.
- Adoption of a sectoral development policy.
- Fisheries resources: admission free from taxes and duties on fisheries resources from the least-developed countries.
- Wood and non-wood forestry products: admission free from taxes and duties on endangered plant and animal species from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- Resources in which trade is governed by CITES.
- Farming diversity and flexibility in the formulation of national policies (landscape, types of farming).
Special and differential treatment
- Inclusion of the above-mentioned products in the list of products covered in Annex 1 of the Agreement on Agriculture;
- Tax- and duty-free admission of those products originating in least developed countries;
- Extension of the implementation period.