|
ON THIS PAGE: 6 December text 11 August text 10 July text 19 May text 8 February text Explanation |
home > trade topics > agriculture > negotiations > chairperson’s texts 2008 |
AGRICULTURE: NEGOTIATIONS Chairperson’s texts 2008 Updated: 9 December 2008 On 6 December 2008, Ambassador Crawford Falconer, chairperson of the agriculture negotiations, circulated his latest revised draft “modalities” text — a sort of blueprint for the final deal. This was based on consultations since September, which followed the “July 2008 package” talks when ministers came to Geneva, 21–30 July to try to agree on “modalities” in agriculture and non-agricultural market access. Although the July meetings ended in deadlock on some issues, gaps were narrowed on several others. The draft “modalities” contain formulas for cutting tariffs and trade-distorting subsidies and related provisions. Previous versions were circulated on 10 July, 19 May and 8 February 2008 (see below). These in turn were revised from a version circulated in July and August 2007 and the chair’s 16 working documents circulated since then. By July 2008, the changes were the result of roughly 240 hours of negotiations organized by the chairperson since September 2007, the most intensive and productive phase in the Doha Round since it began in 2001 and since the agriculture negotiations began in March 2000. Delegations also held lengthy negotiations among themselves.
> Original
mandate:
Article 20 |
Need help on downloading?
|
6 December 2008 revised draft modalities
11 August 2008 report to the Trade Negotiations Committee
10 July 2008 revised draft modalities
19 May 2008 revised draft modalities
8 February 2008 revised draft
modalities
Chairperson’s working documents November 2007–January 2008 _________________ Explanation What are these papers? They are NOT “proposals” from the New
Zealand ambassador (or from “the WTO”) in the sense that we would
normally understand the word “proposal”. In other words, they are
NOT his opinion of what would be “good” for world agricultural
trade. Hear the chairperson’s comments in recent meetings What are “modalities”? “Modalities” are ways or methods of doing something. Here, the ultimate objective is for member governments to cut tariffs and subsidies and to make these binding commitments in the WTO. The “modalities” will tell them how to do it, but first the “modalities” have to be agreed. With 153 members and thousands of products, the simplest way to do this is to agree on formulas for making the cuts. These formulas are at the heart of the “modalities”. Once they have been agreed, governments can apply the formulas to their tariffs and subsidies to set new ceiling commitments. However in order to agree to the formulas, members want a number of other concerns to be part of the deal. These include flexibility to allow some deviation from the formulas, tighter disciplines to ensure loopholes are plugged and trade-distorting subsidies are not camouflaged in permitted policies, and different treatment for developing countries and some other groups of members. The result is a document that is considerably more complicated than formulas alone. But the aim is still to strike a deal that enables governments to open their markets and reduce trade-distorting subsidies. These new commitments are to be listed in documents called “schedules” of commitments. What happens next? Previously, each drafts’ release kicked off
another intensive series of meetings. In July 2008, after further
discussion in the agriculture negotiating groups, members moved to a
new phase where agriculture, non-agricultural market access and some
other areas of the Doha Round could be negotiated in comparison with
each other. They hoped to reach agreement on the “modalities” by the
end of July 2008. When the attempt failed, they
said they
would try to preserve what had been agreed and continue working
towards agreement. |
|
contact us : World Trade Organization, rue de Lausanne 154, CH-1211 Geneva 21, Switzerland