WTO Ag Chair Calls for Transparency in Exports

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Progress in the agriculture negotiations depends on the willingness of WTO members to achieve it, the chair of the negotiations said last week during an informal meeting of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Committee on Agriculture.

Members were presented with a new draft negotiation text during a Special Session, the first opportunity for delegates to see the direction provided by Chairwoman Ambassador Gloria Abraham Peralta of Costa Rica.

The text outlines the possible contours of ministerial decisions on seven negotiating topics: domestic support, market access, export restrictions, export competition (covering measures seen as equivalent to export subsidies), cotton, public stockholding for food security purposes, and a proposed special safeguard mechanism for developing countries, while also covering one cross-cutting issue, transparency.

The group responded favorably to the text as they eye facilitating some kind of consensus ahead of the WTO’s 12th Ministerial Conference at the end of November.
(SOURCE: All Ag News)