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Reaffirming development: MC10 Nairobi and Post MC10 Nairobi – Submission by the G-33

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Reaffirming development: MC10 Nairobi and Post MC10 Nairobi – Submission by the G-33

Reaffirming development: MC10 Nairobi and Post MC10 Nairobi – Submission by the G-33
Photo credit: WTO

We, the G-33 members, strongly renew the long-standing calls for global trade reforms that address inequities and imbalances in the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (AOA) so that all WTO Members would be governed by a multilateral trading system (MTS) under the WTO which is not only open, transparent, and market-oriented but also, more importantly, development-oriented, fair and provides a level playing field.

Developed Members have expansive flexibilities in the AOA which make their farmers and exporters artificially competitive. These flexibilities include, amongst others, huge and high ceilings in trade-distorting subsidies in both production and exports; non-transparent and complex TRQ and tariff systems including tariff peaks and escalations; as well as the highest entitlements to the special safeguard provisions (SSG). Considering these flexibilities, developing Members’ tariffs have not been able to match these wide-ranging flexibilities enjoyed by developed Members and increase their levels of competitiveness and the capacity needed to compete in a market of fair competition.

In order to continue the fundamental reform in agriculture and to address the inequities and imbalances, our Ministers in the Uruguay Round inscribed the “built-in” agenda under Article 20 of the AOA. The agenda has been carried through and further reinforced by the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) in 2001 (WT/MIN(01)/DEC/1) which puts “development” and special and differential treatment (S&DT) for developing Members at its core.

The objectives enshrined in the DDA can only be achieved once all the elements of the agriculture negotiations have a comprehensive and development-oriented outcome. Until the same is achieved we firmly believe that the negotiations must continue towards and after the 10th Ministerial Conference (MC10) Nairobi, building on the various Ministerial decisions/declarations and the development framework we have agreed to date since 2001.

The Group is willing to engage constructively and contribute to a credible and balanced outcome, which withstands the test of development at MC10 Nairobi and beyond.

As part of the balancing and S&DT instruments, the G-33 has long been calling for meaningful Special Products (SP) and an accessible and effective Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM). These tools are needed for sustaining investments in agriculture for food security, livelihood security and rural development, as well as addressing the destabilizing and crippling effects of import surges and downward price swings in the increasingly volatile global agricultural markets largely due to huge subsidies in productions and exports by the developed Members.

Also the Group firmly believes that there should be a permanent solution on public stockholding for food security purposes as mandated.

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