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TWN Info
Service on WTO and Trade Issues (Nov20/13) Geneva, 12 Nov (D. Ravi Kanth) – India has raised sharp concerns over the attempts by Singapore and Brazil to finalize a decision at the WTO General Council meeting next month in exempting from export restrictions, purchases made by the World Food Program (WFP) for humanitarian purposes, arguing that export restrictions are an important tool to ensure food security. At a virtual meeting of the Doha negotiating body on agriculture on 10 November, the newly appointed facilitators on various unresolved Doha agriculture issues such as domestic support, market access, the special safeguard mechanism, export competition, export restrictions, and cotton also presented their reports. The process of appointing facilitators from countries with market access interests such as Paraguay on the special safeguard mechanism and Brazil on export restrictions among others, has raised concerns among members, said a participant, who asked not to be quoted. The new chair of the Doha agriculture negotiating body, Ambassador Gloria Abraham Peralta from Colombia, said, notwithstanding the constraints imposed by the COVID-19 lockdown conditions, members are ready to pursue the new facilitator-led process. She said members wanted technical discussions on all issues without beginning from scratch, emphasizing that the main objective of the new facilitator-led process is to bring clarity on all the issues in the agriculture package. Ambassador Peralta said the new process “should be targeted and build upon the extensive work undertaken in recent months”. However, she appeared to remain silent on all the previous work done by members, including the draft agriculture negotiating modalities text issued in 2008, said a participant, who asked not to be quoted. The chair noted Sri Lanka’s reservation on the appointment of the facilitator on the special safeguard mechanism, Ms Renata Cristaldo Oviedo from Paraguay, suggesting that the issue came after the official confirmation procedures. She urged members to work with the facilitators to move the discussions forward, the negotiator said. The new facilitators appointed by the chair are: (1) Mr Greg Macdonald (Canada), Ms Fenny Maharani (Indonesia), Ms Elisa Olmeda (Mexico) for domestic support; (2) Mr Craig Douglas (Jamaica) for public stockholding; (3) Mr Daniel Arboleda (Colombia) and Ms Mariya-Khrystyna Koziy (Ukraine) for market access; (4) Ms Renata Cristaldo Oviedo (Paraguay) for special safeguard mechanism (SSM); (5) Ms Laura Gauer from Switzerland for export competition; (6) Mr Leonardo Rocha Bento (Brazil) for export restrictions; and (7) Mr Sergio Carvalho (Brazil) and Mr Emmanuel Ouali (Burkina Faso) for cotton. EXEMPTION FOR WFP PROCUREMENT At the meeting on 10 November, the exemption from export restrictions for foodstuffs purchased by the World Food Program (WFP) for non-commercial humanitarian purposes proposed by Singapore and Brazil dominated the proceedings. Singapore is currently preparing a draft General Council Decision (on the proposal), said a participant, who asked not to be quoted. In their separate interventions at the meeting, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and WFP made detailed presentations as to how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting food security and food assistance programs. The two organizations were invited at the request of Mali at the last meeting for providing their specific views on the exemption. The WFP argued that its procurement accounted for a minimal share of globally traded quantities (0.1% for wheat and 0.9% for rice in 2019/20). It suggested the key principles that underline its purchases such as “do no harm” and practices such as continuous price monitoring and assessment of local markets. The WFP said it attempted to minimize any negative impact on markets where food is procured. Responding to questions raised by members, the WFP provided an account of how purchases are made on the basis of food security considerations as well as the legal status of policies followed by the WFP. Singapore, which is spearheading the group on exempting the WFP’s purchases from export restrictions, informed members at the meeting that it would circulate a textual proposal for approval at next month’s General Council meeting, said a participant, who asked not to be quoted. It drew reference to the G20 decision adopted in 2011 as well as the G20 Agriculture Ministers’ decision in April 2020 in the context of the Covid-19 outbreak. At the WTO’s eleventh ministerial conference (MC11) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in December 2017, Singapore and several other countries submitted a draft decision that said “members shall not impose export prohibitions or restrictions on foodstuffs purchased for non-commercial humanitarian purposes for the World Food Program.” However, there was no consensus on the draft decision at the Buenos Aires meeting. Instead of considering its current proposal for “late harvest” (at the WTO’s 12th ministerial conference in June next year), it should be treated as an “early harvest” at next month’s General Council (GC) meeting, it said. Singapore said a GC decision for exempting the WFP’s procurement of food grains is imperative at this juncture for saving lives in the face of deaths from hunger of more than 1.7 million people. It suggested that more than 3.5 million people could die from starvation if members delayed the adoption of the decision until the 12th ministerial conference in Nur Sultan (Kazakhstan) in June next year. Singapore justified the need for adopting the GC decision to address the UN Sustainable Development Goal to achieve zero hunger. In response to Singapore’s proposal, several members – Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Chile, Chinese Taipei, the European Union, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Korea, Malawi, Mexico, Myanmar, New Zealand, Paraguay, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland (on behalf of G10), Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States, Uruguay and Vanuatu (on behalf of Pacific Group) – lent strong support to the Singaporean initiative. Without addressing the issues raised by Singapore, China said it is open to participate actively in the discussions on export restrictions, arguing that the COVID-19 crisis has underscored the urgent need to address this issue. On behalf of the least-developed countries (LDCs), Chad said that the Singaporean proposal will enable the WFP’s current purchases to improve food security in the most vulnerable countries. However, several other members called for constructive dialogue to address their concerns regarding the food security of the supplying countries. South Africa, for example, said that while it would support the proposal, it underscored the need for the WFP to prioritise regional sources and not distort local markets, said a participant, who asked not to be quoted. On behalf of the African Group, Egypt made reference to the previously-raised concerns such as the possible impact on LDCs and Net-Food-Importing Developing Countries. India, however, said that it would support the proposal on a case-by-case basis regarding the WFP’s purchases, instead of a “blanket carve-out” exemption due to its food security concerns, said a participant, who asked not to be quoted. On behalf of the ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) group, Jamaica said it would consult with its members to ensure that it would safeguard members’ national food security. The new facilitator on export restrictions, Mr Leonardo Rocha Bento from Brazil, said that the issue raised by Singapore is very important, suggesting that he would focus his consultations in the coming weeks on this issue. REPORTS BY THE FACILITATORS On domestic support, the three facilitators – Mr Greg Macdonald (Canada), Ms Fenny Maharani (Indonesia), and Ms Elisa Olmeda (Mexico) – said they held 20 meetings with members in which several members called for a balanced, inclusive and transparent process. Several developing countries underscored the need to focus on members’ submissions. Members also highlighted the need to address trade-distorting domestic support based on earlier proposals. On the market access pillar, the facilitators, Mr Daniel Arboleda of Colombia and Ms Mariya-Khrystyna Koziy of Ukraine, said their goal is to foster informal dialogue to identify a clear starting point. Transparency, inclusiveness and neutrality will be the guiding principles. The facilitators suggested that the process should be based on technical analytical work put forward by members and welcomed members’ new submissions and ideas. As regards export competition, the facilitator, Laura Gauer of Switzerland, said some members felt the former chair’s options paper offers a good starting point for negotiations. The facilitator urged members to consult with capitals to provide input and feedback on the paper. On export restrictions, the facilitator, Leonardo Rocha Bento of Brazil, suggested that there appears to be two different camps on the pillar of export restrictions. The first one is some members’ proposed decision to exempt World Food Program food purchases for humanitarian purposes from any export restrictions. Other members want to focus on transparency, although there is less consensus on how to move forward. On the much-delayed outcome on cotton, the facilitators – Sergio Carvalho of Brazil and Emmanuel Ouali of Burkina Faso – called for a fresh approach to restart the negotiations on cotton. Transparency could be one issue that brings everyone to the table, they suggested. On the permanent solution for public stockholding (PSH) programs for food security, the facilitator, Craig Douglas of Jamaica, said that he asked members a set of questions in the first round of consultations: (1) how could the Bali interim decision on PSH be improved? (2) what are the challenges that your government is facing and how can they be addressed? (3) what are the key questions that need to be answered to make progress on this issue? (4) has the COVID-19 pandemic changed priorities? The facilitator on PSH admitted that it is a difficult issue which requires compromise and flexibility. The facilitator pointed to several “promising signs” that makes him believe an outcome on PSH is doable, including that all consulted members indicated willingness to engage constructively, and members were of the view that the impact of COVID-19 may provide an opportunity to further explore the relevance of PSH programs. On the special safeguard mechanism, the facilitator, Renata Cristaldo Oviedo of Paraguay, noted that proponents stressed the need for an easy tool in dealing with volume surges and price drops. There is disagreement among members over whether the previous chair’s last report should be the starting point or the G33 proposals presented in the run-up to the last ministerial conference.
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