WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/AG/NG/W/147
3 April 2001
(01-1655)
Committee on Agriculture
Special SessionOriginal:  English
SIXTH SPECIAL SESSION OF THE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE
22-23 MARCH 2001
Statement by Jordan
G/AG/NG/W/140  (Proposal by Jordan)
Summary and Closing Comments
Jordan is a developing country with a relatively small economy and of a low per capita income
and high unemployment rate.  Jordan is an open economy; Agriculture in Jordan is natural disaster
prone, mainly due to cyclic droughts and unpredictable frosts.
Jordan is committed to the agricultural reform process and follows a strict economic
adjustment programme leading to internal and external trade liberalization.
One of the reasons Jordan joined the WTO was to take advantage of international trade
opportunities. The policy challenge the country f aces now is how to help the domestic producers to
adjust to the competition from abroad.  However, almost one year after accession to the WTO, Jordan
faces problems in adapting to the WTO disciplines of market access.  This is mainly due to the fact
that Jordan was unable to use several provisions in the (Agreement on Agriculture), such as the SSGprovision and flexibility in setting tariffs. Conseque ntly, the applied tariff rates in Jordan's case are
much closer to the bound rates compared to other countries.
Areas for negotiation
Market access
Jordan considers that market access is a key element of the agricultural reform process.  At
the same time, it is thought that the reform must ta ke into account all legitimate interests, including
the special needs of developing countries.  These legitimate interests and special needs are – in thecase of Jordan - mainly the prevention of the negati ve side effects of the reform on farming and the
protection from unfair market intrusions by countri es with less strict WTO membership conditions.
The reform process and market access should also be fair as regards the difference between the bound
and applied tariff rates in different countries.
It is not considered acceptable that a country can take advantage of its high differences
between applied and bound tariff rates or have the right to impose special safeguard measures against
a developing country, because it joined the WTO earlier and therefore had better entry conditions than
the newly acceded developing country.
In recognizing the long-term objectives to establish a fair and market-oriented agricultural
trading system, Jordan proposes that a more uniform difference between  bound and applied rate be
adopted for developing countries.  A formula to achieve convergenc e of the applied rates at the endG/AG/NG/W/147
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of the round, which guarantees that a fair market access for agricultural products should be worked
out and adopted by all countries.
Any tariff reduction formula  should also take into consideration the stage of liberalization
of each Member country.  This requires defining a specific tariff rate target to be reached bydeveloping countries and another one for developed countries (e.g. weighted average or any agreed
method).  The rate of tariff reduction should depend on the existing (applied) tariff level of each
country and the targeted tariff level to be reached over a fixed period.
Jordan believes that the (SSG) mechanism should be continued, and newly acceding countries
such as Jordan should be allowed to use it.  Jordan also supports the idea of having a separate SSG
mechanism on the lines of the SSG provisions under Article 5 of the Agreement on Agriculture
In the area of Export Competition , Jordan supports that all WTO countries should eliminate
all forms of export subsidies.  Any export subsidy should be bound to zero rate since it is the most
distorting policy on trade.
Disciplines in export credits, export credit guarantee or insurance programmes should be
developed, and the development of these disciplines should provide adequate flexibility for
developing countries.
In the area of Domestic Support
Green Box  should be maintained.  However, the Green Box criteria should be reviewed to
ensure that all measures categorized under Green Box meets the fundamental requirements of no, or at
most minimal trade distorting effects.
Blue Box :  Domestic support under production limiting programmes, which are exempt from
the reduction commitment, could be maintained since this can be useful in converting trade-distorting
support to less trade-distorting support; however, it should be subject to reduction commitments
leading to their elimination in future.
AMS
The adjustment of negative product specific support figures against positive non product-
specific AMS support figures should be allowed.
All measures taken by developing countries for poverty alleviation, rural development, rural
employment; desert reclamation should be exempted from any reduction commitments.
Development programmes must remain exempt from reduction commitments during the next
phase of the reform programme.
The existing de minimis  concept and threshold must be continued to be applied only to
developing countries.
In the area of Special and Differential Treatment
Regarding market access , Jordan proposes the establishment of an export promotion
programme , aiming to provide technical assistance to developing countries to increase their capacity
and capabilities in the market access fields.
It is also proposed to establish a trade policy impact-monitoring programme  to provide the
Committee on Agriculture with information on main indicators regarding the adoption of theG/AG/NG/W/147
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Agreement on Agriculture provisions, and their effect on small farmer incomes as well as impacts on
environment and food security.
The main NTC for Jordan are the protection of environment and landscape, poverty
alleviation protection of social and cultural heritage;  which is explained in detail in its proposal.Although Jordan shares the idea that market forc es alone are insufficient to address NTC, Jordan
supports developing ways to address NTC in minimal trade distorting ways.
Closing Comments
Allow me first to thank all delegations' comments, which we think very useful.
I would like to stress that one of the reasons Jordan joined the WTO was to take advantage of
international trade opportunities.  We believe that this target could be achieved by a substantial reform
in the area of market access.  We believe also that the reform process should be fair especially for the
newly acceded countries.  Some flexibility should be allowed to some sensitive products for newly
acceded countries.
Allow me again to thank delegations that supported our proposal.
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