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Analytical Note, March 2011 The European Union (EU) uses a plethora of policy instruments to protect its agricultural sector and to ensure that European farmers, despite having higher production costs, are still able to continue production for both the European and export markets. This paper provides a snapshot of these instruments and also gives an overview of the new instruments that are increasingly being used resulting from the on-going reforms in the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Analytical Note, March 2011 The EU has been undertaking reform in its Common Agricultural Policy. Nevertheless, subsidies to EU agricultural producers are continuing. The major change is that 93% of these supports are now provided in the form of direct aid payments to producers. On these grounds, the EU is arguing in the WTO that its supports are no longer trade distorting, since they are not tied to farmers’ production. In some sectors such as cereals, these direct payments compensating EU farmers directly have had the effect of drastically reducing domestic prices in the EU, whilst also making these EU subsidised produce ‘competitive’ on the world market. Analytical Note, November 2009 The Special Safeguard Provision (SSG) in the WTO's Agreement on Agriculture is an instrument that is regularly used by a number of developed countries to protect their agricultural sector. Most developing countries do not have access to the SSG. The Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) has been proposed by a large number of developing countries in the Doha Round so that they too can avail of a similar and an even more effective safeguard mechanism than the SSG. Unfortunately, the conditions for the SSM have been so diluted as to make it difficult to use, and in many aspects less effective than the SSG. This paper provides a detailed comparison between the two instruments. Analytical Note, November 2009 This paper begins by highlighting the frequency of price declines experienced by developing countries. It then touches on the use of the price-based Special Safeguard Provision (SSG) by developed countries. The paper then looks at the conditionalities of the WTO Agriculture Chair's December 2008 text (TN/AG/W/4/Rev.4). These include exclusion of en route shipments from the price-based SSM coverage; the trigger and remedy, and the omission to take into account the value declines in ad valorem duties when prices drop; the cross-check; and the exclusion of preferential trade from SSM coverage. An analysis of these conditionalities is provided. Some of these clauses, if agreed upon, will severely curtail countries' ability to invoke the price-based SSM. In addition, once invoked, the remedies, as they are currently drafted, are not likely to be effective in shielding domestic producers from price volatilities. Analytical Note, November 2009 This paper examines the conditionalities and their implications for the effectiveness of the volume-based SSM in the December 2008 Agriculture Chair's Modalities. These conditionalities include the trigger level; limits on the remedies and remedy caps; limits on the number of tariff lines that can go beyond the Uruguay Round bound rates; the cross-check; ‘on/off' periods of SSM application; treatment for seasonal and perishable products; exclusion of preferential trade from SSM coverage; exclusion of negligible trade; and pro-rating clauses in calculating the preceding 3-year volume imports. The paper then makes recommendations on how these clauses can be changed so that the SSM can be a more effective instrument for developing countries. Analytical Note, November 2009 The paper gives an overview of the trends in different groupings of developing countries' agricultural import surges, as well as the import surge statistics for a sample of 56 developing countries. This is followed by a look at the products for which import surges are most frequently occurring. The final section of the paper highlights two individual country examples of import surges: poultry into Ghana and rice into Senegal. In most African countries, agriculture remains a critical sector for employment. This is particularly the case where countries have a majority of subsistence farmers. The sector is also important if broad based development is to be achieved. Incomes of small farmers must be increased. This will then stimulate demand in the local economy and lead to the production of high value added products. Conversely, mismanaging the agricultural sector can impact very negatively on countries’ development and can also increase levels of poverty. The latter has in fact been the result of the last twenty years of structural adjustment policies in many African countries. From being net food exporters in the 1970s, the liberalization policies of the 1980s and 1990s led to only small increases in the growth of exports, but exponential growth in terms of Africa’s imports of food products. South Centre Analytical Note - October 2008 This paper outlines the main events which took place during the WTO’s July mini-Ministerial. It goes on to provide a discussion of the key issues that were important in that meeting – agriculture, cotton, the non-agriculture market access negotiations, as well as systemic process concerns. It concludes with some thoughts on the challenges confronting developing countries – high food prices, livelihoods and climate change, and the implications these challenges pose for the WTO. Analytical Note - May 2008 This Analytical note gives an overview of the provisions on agriculture of the interim EPA initialed at the end of 2007 between the EU et 35 ACP countries. A better understanding of the challenges that faces sub-Saharan agriculture in its expansion as well as the implentation of measures that would help it in that sense are fundamental for the formulation of a positive agenda that would appear as a chapter of the EPA on agriculture. This document is in French but will soon be available in English. Research Papers 1 INTRODUCTIONA number of developing countries,1 and especially least developed countries (LDCs), rely on agriculture for their food security, export earnings and rural development. It has been estimated that the agricultural sector accounts for between 30 per cent and 60 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) for many of these countries, and is the major source of foreign exchange. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) (2002) noted that the economies of many developing countries depend on the exports of one or a few commodity exports, making them particularly vulnerable to price variations on specific commodities. It noted that single commodity-dependence is more pronounced in tropical regions, and notably so for specific tropical products including sugar, coffee, bananas, cotton lint and cocoa beans. The variability and decline of commodity prices is well documented (FAO, 2005). It erodes the competitiveness of commodities exported from non-subsidizing developing countries, discourages investment and expansion of their food exporting sectors and, in the event that developing countries depend heavily on agricultural exports, worsen their terms of trade. According to the FAO’s State of Agricultural Commodity Markets (2005), the variability and decline in international agricultural commodity prices has serious implications for developing countries that are highly dependent on commodity export earnings, especially from traditional tropical crops. Since tariff escalation in agricultural markets is regarded as one of the major factors hindering the processing of traditional products for export, analysts have explored the potential for exporting non - traditional fresh fruits and vegetables to QUAD countries (Canada, the EU, Japan and the United States). These are valid alternatives because first, tropical fruits and vegetables are not usually cultivated in QUAD countries and therefore, their trade is not distorted by domestic producer support measures. Secondly, consumer tastes in QUAD countries are diversifying into ‘exotic’ tropical fruits and vegetables. The FAO for example, is currently helping market players to develop international trade for organic mangoes and pineapples produced in Sub-Saharan Africa. South Centre Analytical Note - April 2005 INTRODUCTIONInformation on non-agricultural commodities is not as widely available as for agricultural commodities. The purpose of this paper is to identify, in contrast to agricultural commodities, what is the extent of dependency of developing countries on non-agricultural commodities, what are the main characteristics of this dependency, which developing countries are most dependent on this type of commodities and what are the challenges they face in the trade arena and from a wider developmental view. Many developing countries are highly dependent on non-agricultural commodities. Although declining prices, price fluctuations, commodity export dependence and lack of diversification are similar to agricultural commodities, there are other issues with pose specific challenges to their sustainable development. This paper is structured in the following manner: we will first define what nonagricultural commodities are, then we will identify which commodities developing countries are most dependent on, we will examine their trade patterns and price tendencies and then we will identify the challenges faced by developing countries dependent on non-agricultural commodities. South Perspectives -August 2000 OVERVIEWMany national governments and their international organizations, as well as several non-governmental development agencies, in the 1990s declared “sustainable development” and “sustainable agriculture” to be among their overarching goals. This paper examines the crucial importance of agriculture in “sustainable development” and some of the conceptual ambiguities and practical difficulties that must be faced by developing countries in attempting to approach “sustainable agriculture”. |