Phase II talks concluded
From February 4-6 the last special session meeting of WTO members took place to look at whether or not different sets of rules should be established for developed and developing countries that would partly exempt the latter from commitments under the WTO Agreement on Agriculture. The meeting also discussed how much flexibility developing countries would have to protect and support production of basic food security crops and whether the scope to address non-trade concerns should be limited to developing countries. The issue of whether Special and Differential provisions should only be applied to specific groups of developing countries was also discussed. The Like Minded Group of developing countries pushed for a development box which would allow developing countries to exempt food security crops from the provisions of the Agreement on Agriculture and tariff reduction commitments. Developing countries in the Cairns Group opposed this proposal arguing this would impede South-South trade. The European Commission, along with other major OECD countries, opposed the idea of different sets of rules for developed and developing countries and cautioned against rules which would increase trade distortions. The European Commission argued that 'it would not be in the interest of developing countries to accept the idea that they should actually increase their tariffs' as 'the greatest potential for increase in agricultural trade lies in increasing demand in developing countries'. Some OECD countries felt that developing countries should be allowed to use countervailing duties against cheap subsidised exports from developed countries.
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| Format: | News Item biblioteca |
| Language: | English |
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Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation
2002
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/52902 http://agritrade.cta.int/Back-issues/Agriculture-monthly-news-update/2002/April-2002 |
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