March 25, 2003	Tuesday	Muharram 21, 1424

GENEVA, March 24: The WTO member countries on Tuesday schedule to start negotiations on the draft modalities to reach a compromise for finalizing agreement on agriculture.

Briefing a group of selected newsmen from Africa and Asia, director information and media relation division of WTO, Keith Rockwell, said the member countries would take up the modalities for discussion and expected to be finalized by end of the current month.

The modalities are targets, including numerical targets for achieving the objectives of the negotiations as well as issues related to the rules. Due to be established by March 31, 2003, they would set parameters of the final agreement to be reached by January 1, 2005.

The present draft is an evolution of the first draft of modalities based on discussions at special session held on February 24-28, last, he said and added during the current session focus would be laid on the key divergences referred for further commitments by end of the current month.

The draft modalities covered the areas of market access, export competition, domestic support, incentives for least developed countries and others.

The spokesman said it was not evident as yet that the current Middle East crisis would have an impact on the process of negotiations to reach an agreed modalities. However, he said in future agreements it might have an impact.

Mr Rockwell said that it was expected that the current session would be used by participants for meaningful and serious consultation. Only constructive engagement by participants would create the space for establishing modalities in line with the Doha agreement.

According to the draft agreement provided to Dawn, negotiation chairman Stuart Harbinson notes in the introductory comments, overall, while number of useful suggestions emerged, positions in key areas remained far apart. In the circumstances, there was insufficient collective guidance to enable the chairman at the this time of juncture and in those areas, significantly to modify the first draft as submitted on February 2003. The present paper must, therefore, be considered as an initial, limited revision of certain elements of the first draft of modalities.

The agreement said modalities for the further commitments, including provisions for special and differential treatment, would be established by end of the current month.