Agricultural Negotiations: Recent Developments in the Doha Round

Council reached a decision on frameworks to continue with the multilateral trade negotiations under the Doha Development Agenda (DDA). These agreements lay the foundations for future reform of global agricultural trade. On non-agricultural market access (NAMA), the framework sets the stage for the pursuit of tariff cuts and the reduction or elimination of non-tariff barriers. WTO members have also agreed to intensify efforts toward services liberalization and to incorporate trade facilitation in the DDA. These agreements help put the Doha round back on track after the “detour ” of the WTO Ministerial in Cancun. Arguably the most significant piece of the “July Package” concerns agricultural trade.1 The agreed framework lays out a map for the future elimination of all forms of export subsidies and for better disciplines on export credits, exporting state trading enterprises and food aid. It also introduces new commitments to discipline trade-distorting farm subsidies, promoting deeper cuts in countries with higher subsidies. Moreover, it commits WTO members to pursue “progressivity ” in tariff reductions with a view to achieve substantial improvements in market access while allowing for flexibility in the treatment of sensitive products. This outcome is most welcome, not only in view of the checkered history of multilateral disciplines for agricultural trade, but also in terms of its potential to help the DDA deliver on its promise of being a development-oriented round. As discussed below, this is just a first step (albeit an important one) in a long march and the complexities to achieve a final agreement should not be underestimated. Still, the agricultural negotiations have already played an important role in underscoring the emerging new geography of international trade in which developing countries have a growing weight and political voice in multilateral fora