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A number of developing nations, including India, the African Group, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka, have rejected the draft text for an agreement on agriculture introduced at the WTO by the chair of the agriculture committee as they say that it ignores the needs of poorer countries.
The group is critical of the draft for proposing that all countries should issue prior information before changing import tariffs on farm products and also for ignoring the special dispensation that WTO offers to developing countries that allows them to maintain subsidies for sustainability and development, a Geneva-based trade official told BusinessLine .
‘Strongly oppose’
“While attempts are being made at the WTO to arrive at a consensus around the draft so that an agreement could be in place for adoption at the WTO Ministerial Conference in November, India and other developing nations strongly opposed much of its content at a meeting on Thursday and demanded changes,” the official said.
The WTO introduced a draft text on July 29 hoping to build a consensus amongst members on various issues pertaining to improving market access and reducing subsidies in agriculture, so that an outcome is possible at the WTO’s 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) starting in late November.
On market access, the developing nations stated that the draft proposal could lead to an import surge if duties were raised. Rejecting the suggestion, they pointed out that an attempt was being made at the WTO to shift focus from food security and poor farmers’ issues to that of market access.
“This could have the unfavourable consequence of resource poor developing countries relying more on international markets for their food needs,” they warned.
Wrong assumptions
The group said the draft text wrongly assumed that all entitlements in the existing agreement on agriculture, that allowed countries to maintain certain farm subsidies (Article 6), were distorting trade. This went against the interest of developing countries that have not fully used up their entitlements.
The text also ignored the livelihood and rural development needs of poorer countries and said that subsidies for such purposes should be put up for further negotiations. “This was in total disregard of the special and differential treatment for developing countries that was part of the WTO agenda,” they said.
“The developing countries have called for additional work for bringing out a balanced text that would also incorporate suggestions made by them and LDC groups,” the official said.
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