Multilateral trade negotiations and Agricultural policies in the developed economies

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Multilateral trade negotiations and Agricultural
policies in the developed economies
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• SAT2005 Ch1, Ch4, and the special issue
• Review paper Negotiations' Position of the Main
  trading partners and their Rationale
• Commodity brief Wheat
• Policy briefs
• Decoupled payments
• The WTO negotiations Will developing countries
  benefit from a new agreement?
• Other tasks requested by the director
• Establishing a website for the division

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Negotiations' Position of the Main trading
partners and their Rationale
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• The aim of the paper is to help public
  understanding about the agriculture negotiations
• It is NOT an official record of the negotiations.
• It explains
• agricultural issues raised before and in the
  current bilateral and multilateral negotiations
• developing countries requirements
• July Package, and the dispute settlement and the
  SPS measure and
• four multilateral study cases.

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Who are main traders?

• USA the first exporter for agricultural
  commodities
• EU the largest trader the first exporter
  globally
• China the biggest Asian market
• India the major player in its region
• Brazil the leader of G22

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The WTO and Agriculture

• The three pillars
• market access tariff quotas and non-tariff
  barriers
• domestic support amber box
• export subsidies (competition) limit spending
  and quantities affected by export subsidies
• Agricultural disputes The rules-based WTO
  dispute settlement system
• SPS measures food safety, animal, and plant
  health regulations

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Objectives of developing countries

• diverse and complex
• The main common goal is achieving agricultural
  development through agricultural trade
• the Win-Win concept
• agricultural subsidies in developed countries
  deter developing countries from maximizing their
  gains
• food security

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Current agricultural negotiations

• The continuation of agricultural negotiations
• first phase began in early 2000, then the Doha
  declaration
• Up to Cancun Negotiators missed the 31 March
  2003 deadline for producing numerical targets
• Up to the July package individual initiatives
  were crucial in this period

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July Package

• On 1 August 2004, the WTOs 147 member
  governments approved a package of agreements that
  includes an outline (or framework) to be used
  to complete the modalities on agriculture.
• in 2005, more high-level General Council
  meetings are to be expected to evaluate what the
  objectives for the Hong Kong Ministerial might
  be.

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Case Studies

• representative of trade disputes
• related to the main traders in the world
• great importance from point view of trade,
  economic, environment, poverty reduction

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GM food

• Biotechnology can provide with essential food for
  countries that have food insufficiency
• The United States is the world's biggest GMO
  producer
• EU in 1998 has ensured virtually no GM crop
  varieties to be produced or sold in it
• the U.S. initiated an action with the WTO
  challenging the EUs moratorium

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Chinese shrimps to USA

• one of the largest anti-dumping cases in recent
  years
• shrimp was dumped on the U.S. market
• US Commerce Department proposed new tariffs on
  Chinese shrimp
• China rejected dumping allegations
• The parties vowed to dispute the tariffs in the
  WTO

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Cotton dispute

• Brazil brought a dispute on US subsidies on
  upland cotton
• The WTO found that the U.S. violated the Peace
  Clause
• countries in West Africa are the worst hit by
  current US cotton subsidies
• the US is legally obliged to cease the
  subsidization in excess
• However, The US is intending to appeal

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Sugar exports

• It is one of the most distorted commodities
• The WTO panel, hearing Brazil's challenge against
  the EC's sugar export subsidies, issued its final
  report in favor of Brazil
• poorer countries (ACP) warned that this threaten
  their preferential access into EU
• The EC is reforming its sugar sector
• Probably, similar cases could be brought

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conclusion

• agricultural trade reform is best pursued within
  the ongoing WTO negotiations, not through dispute
  settlement
• Geneva framework is an important step, but there
  are some critical variables that should shape it
• Developing countries need redressing the trade
  flows imbalances and treating them for the
  benefit of all
• legal challenges, such as sugar and cotton cases,
  may provide additional impetus to spur
  negotiations

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Thank you