Agricultural News
WTO Ag Trade Talks Continue
Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:57:30 CST
WTO agriculture negotiations continue and progress is being reported by New Zealand Ambassador David Walker, who chairs the talks. Walker termed the talks - an informal agriculture negotiations meeting of the full membership. The present consultations began on February 1st and according to Walker, - these consultations provided some useful opportunities for discussion, and in each case there’s on-going work to be done of one form or another.
Walker’s meetings with smaller groups of members have covered four topics in particular: 1/ The special safeguard mechanism, a tool that will allow developing countries to raise tariffs temporarily to deal with import surges or price falls; 2/ Tariff simplification, or ending the use of complex tariffs so that most or all end up as straight percentages of the price, with some possibly left as “specific” duties. 3/ Tariff quota creation, which is shorthand for whether sensitive products, which will have smaller tariff cuts than normal, can only be products that already have “tariff quotas”; and 4/ Concerning tropical products and products enjoying preferences — members are looking at a draft compromise.
Walker reports gradual progress in the separate technical work on “templates” and data.
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