committee on agriculture in special session

Report by the Chairperson, H.E. MS gloria abraham peralta,
to the trade negotiations committee

19 November 2021

1   INTRODUCTION.. 2

2   Domestic Support. 4

3   Market Access. 5

4   Export Competition.. 5

5   Export prohibitions or Restrictions. 5

6   Cotton.. 7

7   Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM). 7

8   Public Stockholding for Food Security Purposes (PSH). 8

9   TRANSPARENCY. 9

10   CONCLUSION.. 9

ANNEX: draft chair text on agriculture. 10

Draft ministerial DECISION on trade, food and agriculture OF

[XX] DECEMBER 2021. 10

Domestic Support 11

Market Access. 11

Export Competition. 12

World Food Programme food purchases for humanitarian purposes. 12

Export Prohibitions or Restrictions. 13

Cotton. 13

Special Safeguard Mechanism.. 14

Public Stockholding for Food Security Purposes (PSH) 14

Transparency. 15

ANNEX I. 16

WFP food purchases Exemption from export prohibitions or
restrictions. 16

1  INTRODUCTION

1.1.  This report – which I am sharing with the entire Membership – captures the progress we have made in the negotiations thus far, and my assessment of where the main fault lines are in the positions of Members in the outstanding areas. Attached to it, in the Annex, is a revised draft negotiating text on agriculture resulting from all my consultations with Members in different configurations and all the inputs received in this process.

1.2.  I am sharing this revised draft text under my own responsibility. I would like to emphasize that it does not purport to reflect consensus among Members, neither on the negotiations in their entirety nor on the specific negotiating topics. Furthermore, while it seeks to take into consideration the positions expressed by all WTO Members on all topics in the negotiations to date, it also does not seek to reflect these positions exhaustively. The content of my report is entirely without prejudice to any Member's position on any of the negotiating issues.

1.3.  When I circulated the previous draft negotiating text in July (JOB/AG/215), I urged Members to see it as a tool to advance their work. I am pleased to be able to report that Members have done precisely that, and used it as a reference for their engagement with one another on the outstanding issues, taking also into account their own submissions. In the discussions, Members have willingly shared proposals that they considered necessary to address their concerns, exploring ways to find possible options to reflect their previous submissions and identifying the most promising paths forward towards consensus.

1.4.  During this period, I organized five meetings of the Committee on Agriculture in Special Session^[1] back-to-back with dedicated sessions on Public Stockholding for Food Security Purposes and on the Special Safeguard Mechanism, including two at the Heads of Delegation level, open to the full WTO Membership.

1.5.  I also had multiple bilateral meetings with individual Members and held numerous consultations with smaller groups of Members in various formats and on different topics. Of particular importance was the "room D" process held during the month of October, during which Members engaged constructively in intensive text-based discussions based on the draft text circulated at the end of July, and on Members' various additional inputs.^[2] The pace of my consultations intensified during the month of November.

1.6.  In order to ensure a transparent and inclusive process, I also met throughout this period with the coordinators of negotiating groups, in addition to the open-ended meetings.

1.7.  Last but not least, the negotiation process was also informed and enriched by contacts made between different groups of Members as they explored with one another compromise options to narrow gaps in negotiating positions. Many valuable inputs were produced as a result of this process.

1.8.  I am extremely grateful to Members for their tireless efforts and constructive attitude in the talks thus far. To the extent that the revised draft negotiating text represents a useful contribution to the preparations for the Ministerial Conference, credit is due to the hard work, determination, and good faith of Members.

1.9.  Notwithstanding this intense engagement, we have not made as much progress as we had anticipated on some key issues, especially Domestic Support, Public Stockholding and Market Access.

1.10.  Members have thus not yet been able to agree on detailed and specific outcomes on several negotiating topics. In some instances, positions still diverge. I will provide my more detailed topic-by-topic assessment in the subsequent sections of this paper. Members have also struggled to find ways to identify a balance across negotiating topics that they consider mutually acceptable.

1.11.  I urge Members to acknowledge the gaps in negotiating positions, as well as the implications these have for our ability to move forward on our shared agenda. It is against this background that I have decided to issue the revised draft text in the Annex. The options it contains have been carefully drafted based on Members' inputs and suggestions, as well as positions expressed during my consultations.

1.12.  The text covers the seven main negotiating areas, namely agricultural domestic support, market access, export competition, export restrictions, cotton, the special safeguard mechanism, public stockholding for food security purposes, as well as the cross-cutting issue of transparency. Following the suggestion by several Members, it also includes an introductory part, which is meant to provide context for our negotiations and the different topics covered.

1.13.  I am sure that this text will be considered by many Members as not ideal, as it does not fully reflect their initial ambitions. It is indeed a more streamlined and less ambitious version than what I initially had in mind. But all Members' positions have to be respected and balanced in a fair manner. This text reflects the reality of where we are today. It acknowledges the current state of play in Members' positions and the difficulties we face in building convergence or narrowing the gaps on some key issues.

1.14.  This text therefore constitutes my best attempt to put on the table a balanced and realistic package that could garner the support of all Members for an outcome which all may be able to accept. I firmly believe this text would represent a significant step forward.

1.15.  The basic premise of this text is that all Members share a commitment and a desire to continue the agriculture negotiations after the Twelfth Ministerial Conference (MC12) despite the continued divergence in their negotiating positions on some specific questions. This text therefore aims at sending a clear signal of this shared commitment by finding a realistic compromise that preserves Members' main interests and prepares for a fruitful post-MC12 negotiation by providing Members with as much guidance as possible under the circumstances.

1.16.  It is our collective responsibility to present to Ministers a text that is manageable. We cannot present them with a text that reflects significant divergence in negotiating positions and still expect them to bridge these in just a few days – especially when we have not been able to do so over a period of several months.

1.17.  It is important that we all bear in mind our shared resolve and commitment to deliver a successful outcome on trade in food and agriculture at the Ministerial Conference. Such an outcome is needed to ensure that trade contributes to progress on the goals that Members have set out in the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), including under Article 20 and the objectives and concerns set out in the Agreement's Preamble. It is also needed more broadly for other reasons: to ensure that trade contributes towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, including SDG 2 on hunger, food security and nutrition, and sustainable agriculture; to lay the foundations for our recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, and to enable our effective response to new challenges such as climate change, which is already having significant effects on global markets. This context is articulated in the proposed introductory part of the draft text.

1.18.  At MC12, success will therefore demonstrate that WTO Members can take steps forward together and reaffirm their commitment towards the achievement of our shared objectives on food and agriculture – and will prove the WTO's relevance in today's world.

1.19.  The following sections of my report present the various elements of the draft negotiating text, which I sincerely hope will be considered a useful contribution to our collective endeavour to reach a positive outcome on agriculture.