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Agriculture talks resume, little progress and small group consultations reported in NAMA

11 Oct 2007

Negotiations relating to the Doha Round are progressing slowly, with the talks focusing mainly on agriculture export competition early this week, according to WTO diplomats. The agriculture negotiations re-opened Monday after a two-week break and centered on food aid. The discussion for the first part of this week is expected to cover a range of export competition issues.

The talks on non-agricultural market access (NAMA) are expected to take a back seat in the next two weeks, while diplomats attempt to clear the backlog and the blockages in agriculture.

Last week, the chair of the NAMA negotiations, Canada's Ambassador Don Stephenson, convened small group consultations on various NAMA topics.

In the informal meeting of the Negotiating Group on Market Access for Non-Agricultural Products (NAMA), held on Monday, 1 October, Chairman Ambassador Don Stephenson of Canada reported to members on the small group consultations that took place over the past four weeks.

In what was described as a transparency exercise, the informal meeting heard the Chair informing members of the outcome of bilateral meetings - or "confessionals" - that he held with about 24 members representing a wide spectrum of the membership.

The small group consultations were on non-formula issues that included Small and Vulnerable Economies (SVEs), Recently Acceded Members (RAMs), product coverage, countries with small percentage of tariffs bound, Least Developed Countries (LDCs), and preferential tariff erosion. It also included a discussion on Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs), with the major focus on a proposal submitted by a large group of members that included the NAMA-11, the African Group and the LDC Group on a mechanism to deal with NTBs.

As regards the process, Ambassador Stephenson told members that his idea is that it would be useful for agriculture to get slightly ahead, and for NAMA to start with non-formula issues first. The reason is that to engage deeply in the formula (for tariff reduction) discussion, members have said that they need a feedback from the results in the agriculture negotiations and then gradually move towards an intensive discussion on NAMA.

Ambassador Stephenson was of the view that modalities are needed on NAMA and agriculture by the Fall (presumably, November), or at least by the end of the year, otherwise there is a real risk that the Doha Development Agenda will drift off into an uncertain future although keeping an optimistic outlook about the whole process.

According to trade officials, the Chair concluded the session by saying that he will continue to consult in small groups that have been scheduled for the rest of this week. The Chair's intention is to reserve the week of 22 October for open-ended sessions.

However, the NAMA issue is expected to have a significant development on the day when the WTO's General Council meets. Some groupings of developing countries, including the NAMA 11, are preparing to present a statement on the principles they want to see followed in the outcome of the NAMA talks.

For detailed report <click here>

Resource: TWN Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues
Released on: 11 October 2007