Visit By Egyptian Officials 26 March 2007
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Transcript Visit By Egyptian Officials 26 March 2007
The DDA Negotiations
• The Ninth WTO Trade Round launched in the Qatari
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City of Doha at the Fourth WTO Ministerial
Conference in November 2001
Unsuccessful attempt to launch the negotiations in
December 1999 in Seattle, USA
Concerns of developing countries – marginalisation
in the MTS, lack of transparency and inclusiveness
Members resolved to place the needs and interests
of developing countries at the heart of the
negotiations
Work Programme: TWO tracks – negotiating issues
under the auspices of the TNC and non-negotiating
issues under the auspices of the General Council
Areas Under The Negotiations
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Agriculture (Including Cotton)
Services
Non- Agricultural Market Access
TRIPS (GIs Register)
WTO Rules (AD, Subsidies, RTAs)
DSU (outside Single-Undertaking)
Trade and Environment
Special and Differential Treatment
Trade Facilitation
Principal Elements of the DDA
• Doha Declaration (WT/MIN/(01)/DEC/1)
• 1 August 2004, General Council Decision
(WT/L/579)
• Hong Kong Declaration
(WT/MIN(05)/DEC)
Intractable Issues
Negotiations resumed in Feb 2007
after suspension in July 2006
No breakthrough as yet. Members
still clinging to established positions
What are the intractable issues in
agriculture and NAMA preventing
across-the-board progress in all the
negotiating areas?
Agriculture
• Market Access
• Domestic Support
• Export Competition
Agriculture-Market Access
• Substantial improvement for all agricultural
products
• Agreement in HK that a tiered formula
would be used to reduce tariffs – 4 tiers
• Progressivity – higher tariffs to be reduced
by a greater percentage
• Lack of progress on the tariff bands
(thresholds) and the cuts to be made within
each band
Market Access - Tariffs
Four bands
G-20 thresholds for developed countries, with linear cut
EC to do more - cuts in magnitude between the EC and US
Band
Threshold
EC Cuts
US Cuts
1
0 - 20%
35%
55% - 65%
2
20% - 50%
45%
65% - 75%
3
50% - 75%
50%
75% - 85%
4
75% +
60%
85% - 90%
Cut in top band critical issue – the rest will be proportionate to that
Issue of disproportionality if high number of tariffs in top band (e.g.
25%-30% of tariffs)
Increasing readiness to discuss average cut – maybe above
50%
Other Market Access Issues
• Treatment of Sensitive products
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– 1% - US, Cairns, Brazil
– 8% - EC
– 15% - G10
Treatment of Special Products
– 20% of tariff lines – G-33
– 5 products – US
– Intermediate positions – Pakistan, Thailand,
Malaysia
– TQRs – domestic consumption, current import
volumes and the cuts to be made
Other Market Access Issues
• Special Safeguard Mechanism
– Volume and price triggers
– G-33 prefers a lower threshold, while most developed
countries prefer higher thresholds
• Erosion of preferences
• Tropical products
• Commodities
Domestic Support
• High levels of support provided by developed
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countries
For budgetary reasons, very few developing
countries are providing subsidies
Amounts provided by most developing countries
inconsequential- could be justified as de minimis
(10% of the total value of agricultural production
or under Article 6.2 of the agreement on
Agriculture – investment and input subsidies)
Agreement that there will be three bands for the
reduction of AMS/OTDS – the EC in the top band,
Japan and the US in the second band and all
Members in the third band
Domestic Support - OTDS
Must meet the mandate of effective cuts
Band
Member
Cuts
1
All other Members,
including developing
countries
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(31% - 70%)
Whatever is agreed, DGC
with AMS to do 2/3 of DDC
reductions
2
US and Japan
> 53% (53% - 75%)
3
EC
> 70% (70% - 80%)
For US, must do more
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Reduce OTDS – less than $19 billion & above very low teens
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Political link to other areas of the negotiation (works both ways)
For EC
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Minimum cut likely to be 70% cut but could be 75%-80%
Developing countries with no AMS exempt from OTDS cut
Domestic Support
• De minimis – reductions in the level that
could be provided by developed countries:
from 5% to 2.5% or lower?
• Blue Box – reduction from 5% to 2.5 % of
the average level of total production
during a determined base period?
• Green Box – strengthened disciplines?
Export Competition
• Agreement in HK to eliminate all forms of
export subsidies by 2013
• Export subsidies on cotton eliminated by
developed countries at the end of 2006
• Parallel commitments in respect of export
credits, export credits guarantee schemes
• STEs – monopoly powers
• Food aid
NAMA
• The formula – Simple Swiss Formula with
two co-efficients or a Swiss-type formula
with variable co-efficients depending on the
average tariff rates of Members
• Overwhelming support for the use of a
simple swiss formula with two co-efficients
• Should co-effiecients be within sight of each
other?
• Yes for developed countries and no for
developing countries
• Proposals range from 5 to 30 per cent
NAMA – Other issues
• Paragraph 6 countries
• Treatment of unbound tariffs
• Flexibilities for developing countries –
paragraph 8
• LDCs, small economies etc
• Sectorals
• NTBs
Services
• Number of offers on the table satisfactory
• Key issue is the quality of the offers
• Plurilateral requests/offers – key to
improving offers on the table?
• Issues of concern to developing countries
/interests – mode 4
• GATS rules – progress in recent weeks on
domestic regulation disciplines – draft being
discussed by Members
Rules
• RTAS – transparency mechanism
• No substantive progress on WTO disciplines
• With respect to antidumping and subsidies,
Members have tabled a number of proposals
• Remains to be seen what Members will
accept
• Linkages with other areas
Special and Differential Treatment
• Not much progress
• 28 Agreement-specific proposals – should
they be harvested or revisited
• Decisions on 5 Agreement-specific LDCs
proposals in HK
• Category II proposals – not much progress
in the relevant WTO bodies
• 16 remaining category I and III proposals
Trade Facilitation
• Good progress in the negotiations
• Text-based contributions from Members –
platform for a draft text to be circulated by
the Chairman for Members’ consideration
• Special and differential treatment for LDCs
and developing countries in general
• Nature of disciplines – voluntary or
watertight?
Other Issues
• Trade and Environment
• TRIPS Issues – Extension of the additional
protection provided to wines and spirits to
other products
• TRIPS Register – automatic legal effects or
not - deadlock?
Concluding the Round: 2007?
• Challenge: how to make most of the
renewed political commitment
• Work progressing in all negotiating bodies
• Role of G4+/- mainly on agriculture;
• Other offstage bilateral/plurilateral
contacts
Process as foreshadowed
• Establish modalities in Ag and NAMA: July?
• Prepare schedules based on modalities
• Verification of schedules
• Conclude negotiations in other areas
including services
• Legal drafting
• Signing of Final Act
• Domestic ratification processes
US Domestic Considerations
• July breakthrough possible?
• TPA renewal/extension?
• US Farm Bill reform?
• Conclude Round in 2007?
THANK YOU
Edwini Kessie
Counsellor, C-TNC Division, WTO
([email protected])