Agriculture

1

• Agriculture Cotton issues
• EU Expert Marlena Vlahantoni-Tikof
• Geneva, May
  2005

2
Current Status of WTO negotiations (1)

• Agriculture is a key element of the DDA
• Following the July Framework, negotiations
  entered into an intensive technical stage to
  reach full modalities before Hong Kong
  Ministerial Meeting
• A first modality paper is envisaged for July 2005

3
Current Status of WTO negotiations (2)

• So far technical elaboration has well advanced in
  some areas, but progress remains uneven in
  different chapters
• In Market Access Pillar, an agreement on the
  critical element of AVEs, seems to have been
  reached
• Now the negotiating process can move forward to
  more substantial issues

4
Key negotiating issues of interest to ACPs

• ACP countries have strong interests in all
  pillars of agriculture negotiations
• Major concern for them is to ensure effective and
  operational SDT as an integral part of all
  elements of the negotiations
• Address the cotton issue

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Key negotiating issues on agriculture

• Market Access Emphasis on increasing
  opportunities for ACPs exports outlets and
  effectively address preference erosion
• Domestic Support Emphasis on addressing specific
  concerns related to substantial agriculture and
  rural development goals (preservation of
  de-minimis, Art. 6.2 of AoA)
• Export Competition Emphasis on SDT aspects of
  Food aid, STEs, export credits, exemptions of
  art. 9.4 of the AoA.

6
Key negotiating issues on Cotton

• Key issues were identified by the ACP
  beneficiaries as follows Considering paras
  1(b), 4, 5 46 of the July Framework, the
  contractor will assist the ACP group drafting the
  proposals to be submitted in the Sub-Committee on
  cotton in order to address ambitiously
  expeditiously and specifically all the trade
  distorting policies affecting the cotton sector
  in all three pillars of the agriculture
  negotiations domestic support, export
  competition and market access

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Starting situation

• First mission of the expert 16.3 - 23.3
• Exchange of views between the expert and the ACP
  Focal Points representatives regarding the method
  of work (short technical papers)
• (a) on Agriculture and (b) on Cotton
• Agreement on a detailed work plan

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The work plan agreed

• Submission of short technical papers on
• (1) Agriculture
• AVEs
• Long-standing preferences
• Tariff escalation
• Tariff reduction formula
• (2) Cotton
• Suggestions for modalities in all pillars
• Different options for establishing a monitoring
  surveillance mechanism

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Mid term deliverings of the expert

• Two papers, already submitted
• AVEs- Negotiating proposals for ACPs
• Suggestions on modalities for Cotton
• Two papers are now available (2nd mission of the
  expert)
• Long-standing preferences
• Tariff escalation

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The expected deliverings until the completion of
the project

• A paper on tariff reduction formula to be
  submitted before the 30 May 2005 meeting of the
  Committee on Agriculture
• A paper on establishing a monitoring
  surveillance mechanism for cotton to be
  submitted before the end of the Focal Point 2
  project.
• A 3rd mission is envisaged before the end of the
  project

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Risks

• Up to now, the project is running as planned
• Time constraints have been a key factor that
  determined the depth of analysis accomplished
• In case more in-depth elaboration is asked, it
  will prove to be detrimental for the remaining
  work

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Constraints

• The agriculture field is vast, complex and
  demanding
• ACPs have interests in all pillars, hence in all
  emerging issues for negotiation.
• The short period of the project does not allow
  the coverage of all issues of interest to ACPs.

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Comments

• Cooperation between the expert and ACP
  beneficiaries has been very good
• Evaluation of multilateral negotiations mainly
  focus on developing countries in general and not
  on specific sub-sets
• Available literature specific for ACPs focus
  mainly on EU-ACP relations
• Identification of suggestions appropriate for the
  ACPs were extremely difficult and required
  innovative approaches

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Suggestions for future technical support

• In Agriculture there are important issues in all
  pillars that could not be covered in the present
  project but need to be covered under another
  project
• In Market Access the issues of Spesial products,
  SSM
• In Domestic Support the issues on de-minimis,
  Art. 6.2. Of the AoA
• In Export Competition the issue on food security
• Especially for Cotton
• The problem of low cotton prices and the impact
  to farmers