REPORT (2024) ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE

REPORT BY THE CHAIRPERSON

1.1.  The present report is being circulated by the Chairperson of the Committee on Agriculture on her own responsibility. This report provides a summary of the activities of the Committee on Agriculture ("the Committee") during 2024.

1.2.  The Committee organized three formal meetings in 2024 on 23-24 May, 25-26 September, and 26-27 November 2024.[1] Five informal meetings of the Committee were held respectively on 21 May, 12 July, 25 September, 21 October, and 25 November 2024.[2] Mr. Kjetil Tysdal of Norway chaired the Committee's May meeting. In May 2024, the Committee elected Ms. Anna Leung of Hong Kong, China, as its Chairperson for 2024-25.[3] Ms. Anna Leung chaired the September and November Committee meetings in 2024.

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 based on 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 Ministerial Decision on Measures Concerning the Possible Negative Effects of the Reform Programme on Least-Developed and Net Food-Importing Developing Countries (NFIDC Decision). Between 1 January and 19 November, 322 agriculture notifications were circulated.

1.4.  In 2024, Members posed 346 questions in connection with specific notifications during the Committee's review process.[4] These questions were distributed as follows: 86% related to domestic support issues, 11% to market access, and the remaining 3% in relation to the export competition, export restrictions and prohibitions, and the NFIDC Decision. Specific concerns were also raised regarding outstanding notifications that some Members had yet to submit to the Committee.

1.5.  Members also raised a wide range of matters relevant to the implementation of commitments, independently of notifications, under Article 18.6 of the Agreement. A total of 264 questions on 109 specific implementation matters (SIMs) were raised to 37 Members during 2024. Out of these, 72 SIMs were discussed for the first time in 2024. The remaining matters were discussed on one or more occasions in previous years.

1.6.  The Committee received two counter-notifications from Members under Article 18.7 of the Agreement. These were examined at May[5] and November[6] meetings pursuant to paragraph 11 of the working procedures.

1.7.  Since 2018, the Secretariat has been monitoring the number of outstanding responses under the CoA review process.[7] A gradual reduction in the number of outstanding responses has been observed since this exercise started. As of the November Committee meeting, 149 responses were pending for questions raised during 2013‑2022 and 37 for questions raised in 2023. The successive Chairpersons have continued to encourage Members to increase their efforts to submit the outstanding responses as a means to enhance the efficacy of the Committee's monitoring functions.

1.8.  At each meeting, the Committee reviewed the status of Members' compliance with their notification obligations under the Agreement on Agriculture based on the Secretariat document summarizing the status of compliance with notification requirements.[8] While a significant proportion of notifications are still outstanding (about 22% of all notifications from 1995‑2022), Members are continuing their efforts to bring their notification record up to date. In 2024, three Members used the simplified mechanism agreed at the November 2022 meeting[9] to allow Members to orally announce at Committee meetings their non-recourse to export subsidies, thereby fulfilling their outstanding export subsidy notifications (Table ES:1).

1.9.  The Committee conducted the annual consultations under Article 18.5 with respect to Members' participation in the normal growth of world agricultural trade within the framework of the export subsidy commitments and the annual monitoring exercise on the follow up to the Marrakesh NFIDC Decision under Article 16.2 of the Agreement on Agriculture at its November meeting. The consultations to review the normal growth of world agricultural trade were informed by a background note by the Secretariat[10]. The NFIDC monitoring exercise was undertaken on the basis of Table NF:1 notifications by donor Members, contributions by Members and observer organizations[11], as well as a background note prepared by the Secretariat.^[12] The agenda item on implementation-related issues was also taken up at the November meeting of the Committee alongside the NFIDC monitoring exercise. The WTO list of NFIDCs remained unchanged as there was no request from developing country Members to be included on the WTO NFIDC list.^[13] Members also exchanged views regarding the Committee's conduct of the annual reviews of the list mandated under _G/AG/3.[14]

1.10.  The Committee also discussed follow-up to various Ministerial Outcomes, specifically related to (i) the Understanding on Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) Administration Provisions of Agricultural Products, as defined in Article 2 of the Agreement on Agriculture[15]; (ii) the Nairobi Ministerial Decision on Export Competition[16]; (iii) the Ministerial Declaration on the Emergency Response to Food Insecurity[17]; and the (iii) Ministerial Declaration on the WTO response to the COVID‑19 Pandemic and Preparedness for Future Pandemics[18].

1.11.  The Committee continued discussions, including based on a draft text by the Chairperson[19], on the review of the Table MA:1 notification format pursuant to the conclusions of the first triennial review of the operation of the Bali TRQ Decision (_G/AG/36) to enable Members to include the required information on the implementation of paragraphs 2 to 5 of the Bali TRQ Decision in their MA:1 notifications.

1.12.  On the follow-up to the Nairobi Ministerial Decision on Export Competition, the 2024 annual dedicated discussion took place in the September 2024 meeting based on the Secretariat's background document[20] as well as specific questions raised by Members on matters related to the implementation of the Nairobi Decision.[21] Regarding the modification of the scheduled export subsidy commitments pursuant to the Nairobi Decision, the situation had remained unchanged since February 2022: out of the 16 Members with export subsidy reduction commitments at the time of the Nairobi Decision, 13 Members[22] had their revised schedules certified, two[23] other Members had submitted their revised draft schedule in 2017 where the certification has been pending, and the remaining one Member[24] had not yet circulated its draft schedule. The Committee initiated the third triennial review of the Nairobi Ministerial Decision at its informal meeting held on 17 April 2024. Members subsequently discussed the subject in both formal and informal meetings.[25] As a potential deliverable of the review, Members primarily focused on updating and streamlining export competition notification and transparency requirements, based on draft texts by the Chairperson[26]. At the November Committee meeting, Members agreed on a two-step written procedure to approve the Report of the triennial review and a Decision on updating and streamlining export competition notification requirements and formats, based on the drafts finalized at the meeting on 27 November 2024[27].

1.13.  On 17 April 2024, the Committee, at a special meeting, adopted the report and recommendations (_G/AG/38) under the work programme initiated pursuant to paragraph 8 of the MC12 Declaration on Emergency Response to Food Insecurity.[28] The adopted recommendations cover the four agreed themes[29] of the work programme – access to international food markets; financing of food imports; agricultural and production resilience of LDCs and NFIDCs; and select horizontal issues. Members have since engaged in discussions on possible follow-up actions regarding these recommendations.

1.14.  As agreed at the special meeting of the Committee in June 2020, the discussions on 'COVID‑19 and Agriculture' continued during the Committee's meetings in 2024. These discussions were guided by the MC12 Declaration on the WTO Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic and Preparedness for Future Pandemics, specifically in light of its paragraph 24. For all meetings in 2024, the Committee undertook discussions on 'COVID-19 and Agriculture' together with the agenda on the Work Programme pursuant to paragraph 8 of the MC12 Ministerial Declaration on the Emergency Response to Food Insecurity, given the overlap across the two topics. Observer international organizations also contributed to the discussions, including based on written submissions[30]. The Committee at its November meeting agreed to discontinue 'COVID-19 and Agriculture' as a standing agenda item for meetings starting from 2025.

1.15.  Pursuant to the consideration of the African Group's submission on "The Role of Transfer of Technology in Resilience Building: Agriculture",[31] the Committee agreed to hold thematic sessions in 2024 to explore the potential contribution of technology transfer to food security, including through the sharing of country experiences. Three thematic sessions were held respectively on 21 May[32], 24 September[33] and 25 November[34] featuring experts, inter alia, from intergovernmental organizations, research institutions, farmer organizations and Member governments.

1.16.  The Committee, at the request of some Members[35], continued discussions regarding the European Union's regulation on deforestation-free products (EUDR), with questions raised on this policy also under the review process (SIM 558).[36]

1.17.  Several online tools support the Committee's monitoring and transparency functions. Since 2012, the Agriculture Information Management System (AG‑IMS)[37] has facilitated Member submission of questions and responses in the context of the Committee's monitoring of implementation of commitments. During the Committee meetings in 2024, the Secretariat regularly updated Members on the progress made regarding the project to develop a database on agricultural domestic support sourcing the information from Members' domestic support notifications. In February 2024, the Secretariat completed and delivered the fourth report on Bound Total AMS and Current Total AMS. This report is in addition to the reports on the three 'exempt' domestic support categories, namely the Green Box, Article 6.2 development programmes, and the Blue Box all of which are already accessible on the AG-IMS, both in the notified currency and in USD. At an information session held on the margins of the November Committee meeting, the Secretariat made a detailed presentation on the Committee's review process, and the digital tools maintained by the Secretariat.[38]

1.18.  Regarding technical assistance activities, the WTO Secretariat delivered the second, in‑person, phase of the advanced agriculture notification workshop on 15‑17 October 2024. In 2024, the WTO's Agriculture and Commodities Division delivered workshops on the Agreement on Agriculture and notifications in Albania; Cabo Verde; Colombia; Dominican Republic; Ecuador; Jamaica; Malaysia; and Seychelles. Additionally, upon request, the Secretariat organized one‑on‑one trainings on the AG-IMS to assist Members with the use of the online notification submission system.

1.19.  The following international intergovernmental organizations have regular observer status in the Committee: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), the International Grains Council (IGC), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), World Food Programme (WFP), and the World Bank. The Committee agreed at its November meeting to invite the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) as an ad hoc observer to participate in the formal meetings of the Committee in 2025.

1.20.  The dates of the meetings of the Committee in 2025 were announced at the November 2024 CoA meeting.[39]

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