Documento analítico (resumen) marzo de 2011

La Unión Europea (UE) utiliza una plétora de herramientas de política destinadas a proteger su sector agrícola y asegurar que los agricultores europeos, a pesar de tener costos de producción más elevados, sean capaces de continuar produciendo tanto para el mercado europeo como para el mercado de las exportaciones.

El presente documento constituye una instantánea de estas herramientas, y proporciona una visión de conjunto de los nuevos instrumentos que, como resultado de las reformas en curso de la Política Agrícola Común (PAC) de la UE, son cada vez más utilizados.

Descargar

Documento analítico (resumen) marzo de 2011

 En las negociaciones de la UE relativas a los Tratados de Libre Comercio (TLC), la UE no ha querido abordar la cuestión de las subvenciones agrícolas con el argumento de que tales negociaciones ya se llevan a cabo en el marco de la OMC. Sin embargo, este argumento no es satisfactorio puesto que los TLC llevarán a reducciones de los tipos arancelarios de los países en desarrollo superiores a las que se les pide en la Ronda de negociaciones de Doha de la OMC.

Asimismo, en esta ronda de negociaciones, las subvenciones concedidas por la UE no serán modificadas. Las subvenciones serán simplemente cambiadas de compartimento para que den la impresión de ser inocuas.

Este documento señala ejemplos de investigaciones (entre las que se incluyen investigaciones realizadas por la misma UE) que demuestran que las ayudas directas otorgadas por la UE, así como sus herramientas de política comercial, provocan distorsiones en el mercado.

Descargar

Documento Analítico, resumen únicamente, noviembre de 2009

En 10 años de negociaciones sobre la agricultura, en su lucha por conseguir mercados para la exportación de productos agrícolas, los países desarrollados y en desarrollo han debilitado considerablemente las disposiciones del MSE.

Un número considerable de estas condicionalidades ni siquiera existe para las SGE utilizadas por los países desarrollados. De hecho, el MSE ha sido debilitado a tal punto en las negociaciones que su eficacia y, por consiguiente, su utilidad para los países en desarrollo, es cuestionable.

Descargar  

Documento Analíico, Noviembre de 2009

Extracto: "La cláusula que establece que los envíos en camino quedan exentos de la aplicación del MSE basado en el precio convertirá el MSE, conforme a la redacción actual, en un instrumento imposible de invocar para la mayoría de los países en desarrollo. Las SGE funcionan de forma que los países importadores perciben derechos en la frontera únicamente cuando llegan los envíos y cuando es claro que el precio del envío ha bajado y no supera el precio de activación. Si el MSE basado en el precio no cuenta con esa misma posibilidad que ofrecen las SGE, resulta poco probable que los países en desarrollo puedan invocarlo".

Descargar

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.

 click here to read

Documento Analítico (resumen únicamente), noviembre de 2009 En el presente Documento Analítico se presenta un panorama general de las tendencias en el aumento de las importaciones agrícolas en diferentes agrupaciones de países en desarrollo, así como las estadísticas correspondientes al aumento de las importaciones a partir de una muestra de 56 países en desarrollo. En el documento se estudian igualmente los productos cuyas importaciones aumentan con mayor frecuencia. Por último, se presentan los casos de dos países en particular en donde tiene lugar un aumento de las importaciones: la carne de aves de corral en Ghana y el arroz en el Senegal.  

Descargar

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

INTRODUCTION

A 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.

 click here to download 

South Centre Analytical Note - April 2005

INTRODUCTION

Information 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.

 click here to download 

South Perspectives -August 2000

OVERVIEW

Many 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”.

 click here to download