EIGHTH DEDICATED DISCUSSION OF THE RELEVANT
TRADE-RELATED DEVELOPMENTS FOR COTTON
17 november 2017
Report[1]
by the Chairman, H.E. Dr. Stephen Ndũn'gũ Karau
1.
Pursuant to the
Bali Ministerial Decision on Cotton of 7 December 2013[2]
and the Nairobi Ministerial Decision on Cotton of 19 December 2015[3],
the eighth Dedicated Discussion of the relevant trade-related developments for
cotton took place on 17 November 2017. The Dedicated Discussion was held
back-to-back with the 28th Round of the Director-General's
Consultative Framework Mechanism on Cotton (DGCFMC), dedicated to the
development-assistance aspects of cotton.
2.
In my introductory remarks, I updated Members on the state of play
in the negotiations on cotton leading up to the 11th Ministerial
Conference (MC11). I noted that cotton clearly remained a priority for MC11 and
that all Members were aware of the fact that Ministers had agreed more than a
decade ago that cotton would be addressed "ambitiously, expeditiously and
specifically within the agriculture negotiations".
3.
I reported that I
had convened five consultations in Quad Plus format[4]
to discuss the various proposals on the table including one from the Cotton-4 (C4).[5]
Cotton Domestic Support remained the central and most controversial issue, and
views remained far apart on what could constitute a possible outcome in this
area.
[1] This report is circulated under the Chair's own responsibility.
[2] Document WT/MIN(13)/41 – WT/L/916, dated 11 December 2013.
[3] Document WT/MIN(15)/46 – WT/L/981, dated 21 December 2015.
[4] Composed of the C4, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Colombia,
the European Union, India, Pakistan and the United States.
[5] TN/AG/GEN/46 – TN/AG/SCG/GEN/18,
circulated on 11 October 2017.