ISLAMABAD, May 8: The G-20 member countries have criticised the report of the WTO committee on agriculture, saying the paper has ignored main concerns of the developing countries.
According to the G-20 declaration submitted to the WTO committee on agriculture, certain issues have not been tackled, including some of particular interest to developing countries, but the group understands that another paper is forthcoming. Pakistan is also member of the G-20 group of developing countries.
Among the issues of particular interest to the bloc is the Green Box (monitoring and surveillance), tropical products’ preference erosion. It is important to avoid accommodating trade-distorting support in the Green Box (provision of subsidy) and its disciplines should be linked to an effective mechanism of monitoring and surveillance.
It said balance should be ascertained based on the G-20 commitment to make this round a development round. As a development round, its results should be development-oriented and should correct the imbalances present in the multilateral trading system. “A second element is that any outcome must be based on agreements reached so far. Those agreements incorporate the balances achieved so far in the negotiations. Those balances will have to be reflected in the final text. They are the best possible guarantee of a successful outcome.
“We understand that the notion of centers of gravity reflect also a negotiating environment. But the centre of gravity does not necessarily correspond to balance. Balance will not be found by averaging negotiating positions; balance can only be found by reference to the mandate and to the outcome in other areas of the negotiation,” the declaration said.
“A centre of gravity in domestic support must also incorporate, as pointed out in the report, a combination of cuts and disciplines. Both are important, but at lower levels of cuts, disciplines become even more essential.
“We feel that perhaps in the text there is a need to strike a better balance between the two. Disciplines must be credible in avoiding product-shifting or box-shifting. This is especially so in the case of the blue box—restricted subsidies -- where, for instance, a mere anti-concentration discipline will not be effective to avoid increasing volumes of support in most commodities.
“The centre of gravity is market access is of particular sensitivity due to the completely different characteristics of agriculture in developed and developing countries. In defining a centre of gravity, proportionality is essential, as mandated by the July Framework.
“We should also recall that a center of gravity in market access requires an appropriate combination of tariff cuts and flexibilities.
In the case of developed countries, a combination that would include less than 50 per cent cut in the higher band with a large number of sensitive products, subject to a large deviation and a reduced TRQ expansion in terms of domestic consumption does not seem to provide a good centre of gravity for a round that should deliver substantial improvements in market access.”
The G-20 proposal remains the centre of gravity in this pillar. It is the middle ground that is achieved by the combination of the tariff cut formula structure and the benchmarks for average cuts in developed and developing countries, respectively, at least 54 per cent for the former and at the maximum 36 per cent for the latter.
