REPORT (2015) ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE
COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE
Report by the Chairperson
1.1. The present draft report is being circulated by the Chairperson of
the Committee on Agriculture on his own responsibility. This report provides a
summary of the activities of the Committee on Agriculture ("the
Committee") during 2015.
1.2. The Committee held three meetings in 2015 on 4 March, 4 June
and 25 September.[1] Mrs Miriam Chaves of Argentina was the
chairperson for the March meeting of the Committee. The Committee elected Mr
Michael Wamai (Uganda) as the new chairperson for 2015-2016 at the June
meeting.
1.3. In accordance with Article 18.1 of the Agreement on Agriculture
("the Agreement") at each of its meetings the Committee reviewed
progress in the implementation of Members' commitments. This review process is
undertaken on the basis of notifications submitted by Members in the areas of
market access, domestic support, export competition, export prohibitions and
restrictions as well as under the follow-up to the Marrakesh Ministerial
Decision on NFIDCs. Between 1 January and
13 October 2015, 136 agriculture notifications of all types were circulated.
1.4. In total 58 notifications were subject to review in 2015.
Overall in the Committee meetings that took place in March, June and September 2015
Members posed 201 questions in connection with specific notifications. These
questions were distributed as follows: 72% related to domestic support issues, 16%
to market access, and 12% to export subsidies.[2]
Specific concerns were also raised regarding the outstanding notifications that
some Members had yet to submit to the Committee.[3]
1.5. A wide range of matters relevant to the implementation of
commitments was also raised independently of notifications under the provisions
of Article 18.6 of the Agreement. A total of 34 implementation-related
issues were raised by ten Members during 2015.[4] Out of these, 19 issues were
discussed for the first time in 2015. These included questions on Angola's
Joint Executive Decree on import regulation, Argentina's domestic support
notifications, Egypt's domestic support notifications, European Union's dairy
policies, India's cotton policies, India's export assistance programmes,
India's export of cereals and rice, India's importation of apples, India's minimum
indicative export quotas for sugar, India's support price for wheat,
Indonesia's regulation on importation of meat, Indonesia's restrictions on
importation of sugar, Korea's rice imports, Pakistan's wheat export subsidies,
Russia's wheat export tax, Russia's grain exports, Switzerland's export subsidy
budget, Thailand's sugar policies, and the U.S. Export Credit Guarantee Program.
The remaining issues were discussed one or more times in previous years either
under the review of notifications or under matters raised under Article 18.6. In
2015 a large number of the new issues related to area of export competition,
such as the request for confirmation and clarification on the use of export subsidies
and other export measures with equivalent effect.
1.6. At each meeting the Committee reviewed the current status of
Members' compliance with their notification obligations under the Agreement. A
document summarizing the current status of compliance with notification
requirements was circulated at each Committee meeting.[5]
While a significant proportion of notifications are still outstanding (about 27%),
Members have increased their efforts to bring their notification record up to
date by submitting notifications covering multiple reporting periods. Since
2009 onwards, the average number of years reported per notification has been
close to three.
1.7. In March 2015, the Committee continued its discussions in an
informal setting on the issue of implementation of notifications in the area of
export restrictions based on a written submission from Japan.[6]
The discussions were primarily limited to the issue of the definition of
'foodstuffs'.[7]
1.8. With respect to the work of the Committee related specifically to
NFIDCs, the WTO list of NFIDCs[8]
remained unchanged as no new applications had been received since 2012. The
Follow-up to the Ministerial Decision on Measures Concerning the Possible
Negative Effects of the Reform Programme on Least developed and Net
Food-Importing Developing Countries (NFIDC) which is normally monitored in the
Committee's November meeting will take place in the first meeting of the Committee
in 2016. As is normal practice, the monitoring exercise will be undertaken on
the basis of, inter alia, Table NF:1 notifications by donor Members,
contributions by Members and observer organizations, as well as a background
note prepared by the Secretariat.[9] The consultations under Article
18.5 of the Agreement that are conducted annually in the November meetings of
the Committee will also be held in the first meeting of the Committee in 2016.
Like in previous years, a secretariat background note[10]
will be circulated prior to the Committee meeting in order to facilitate the
consultations.
1.9. The Committee maintained a standing item on its agenda relating to
implementation issues, both in the framework of its follow-up to the Decision
by the Doha Ministerial Conference on Implementation-Related Issues and
Concerns[11],
as well as in the framework of issues and proposals referred to it by the
General Council.
1.10. The Committee also discussed in formal settings follow-up to the
Bali Ministerial decisions related to (i) the Understanding on Tariff Rate
Quota Administration Provisions of Agricultural Products, as defined in Article
2 of the Agreement on Agriculture; and (ii) the Bali Ministerial Declaration on
Export Competition. With respect to the Understanding on TRQ administration,
following Committee discussions in 2014 regarding the best practice for
notifying TRQ fill rates, many Members who had submitted Table MA:2
notifications began providing data on in-quota imports using the proposed format.[12]
1.11. With respect to the follow-up on the Declaration on Export
Competition, the second annual dedicated discussion on export competition occurred
during the June 2015 meeting. The discussions were held on the basis of the
Secretariat's background document based on the answers to the questionnaire
sent to Members on 26 November 2014, and relevant information coming from Table
ES:1 and ES:3 notifications and notifications to the Working Party on State Trading
Enterprises. Following the meeting, a revised Secretariat's background document
compiling all the information received by the Secretariat was circulated on 27
July 2015[13]
concluding the second annual examination process.
1.12. The WTO's Agriculture and Commodities Division delivered the seventh
Geneva-based workshop on agriculture notifications on 6-9 July 2015. It was
organised in collaboration with the Institute for Training and Technical
Cooperation with the purpose of facilitating the preparation and review of
agriculture notifications. A total of 20 participants from developing country
capitals were funded by the WTO, and 5 participants came on a self-funded
basis. The workshop included practical exercises related to the review process
of the Committee on Agriculture. It also provided hands-on training on the
Agriculture Information Management System (AG-IMS) to empower participants to
make full use of existing information tools. As in previous editions, the last
day of the 2015 workshop was entirely devoted to individual sessions with AGCD
staff, with a view to offer the participants the opportunity to consult on
unfulfilled notification obligations. In addition to the workshop, the
Secretariat conducted in 2015 two national seminars on agriculture notifications
in Colombia, and Saint Lucia.
1.13. The following international intergovernmental organizations have
regular observer status in the Committee: Food and Agriculture Organization,
International Monetary Fund, the International Grains Council, OECD, UNCTAD,
World Food Programme, and the World Bank. The Inter-American Institute for
Agricultural Cooperation (IICA) continued to benefit from ad hoc observer
status. No consensus has been reached as regards requests for observer status
by eleven other international organizations.
1.14. The Committee agreed to hold regular meetings on 9-10 March, 7-8
June, 14-15 September and 9-10 November in 2016.
__________
[1] The summary reports of these meetings are contained in documents
G/AG/R/77, G/AG/R/78, and G/AG/R/79 (to be issued).
[2] See G/AG/W/142, section 2.1-2.5; G/AG/W/145, section 2.1-2.5; and G/AG/W/146,
section 2.1-2.4.
[3] See for example G/AG/R/76, paras. 1.10-1.12.
[4] See G/AG/W/142, G/AG/W/145 and G/AG/W/146.
[5] G/AG/GEN/86/Rev.20-22.
[7] G/AG/R/77, paras. 2.10-2.12.
[9] In the G/AG/W/42/series.
[10] In the G/AG/W/32/series.
[11] WT/MIN(01)/17, para. 2.
[13] G/AG/W/125/Rev.3, addenda and corrigenda.