WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/AG/NG/W/83
12 December 2000
(00-5384)
Committee on Agriculture
Special SessionOriginal:  English
FOURTH SPECIAL SESSION OF THE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE
15-17 NOVEMBER 2000
Statement by Sri Lanka
Special and Differential Treatment (G/AG/NG/W/55)
My delegation also wishes to join the other delegations in thanking ASEAN for presenting a
proposal on Special and Differential Treatment for Developing Countries in world agriculture trade
and as well as the Cairns Group for their paper on market access, not only because they contribute tothe debate but also address concerns of developing countries positively.  There is a need for
differentiation between Members of the WTO, as regards their rights and obligations in view of their
differentiated capacity to implement various provisions and to take advantage of export opportunities.
ASEAN has quoted paragraph 5 of the Enabling Clause in their proposal.  I also wish to state
that Part IV and Article XXVIII Bis of GATT  1994, the provisions of which are of paramount
importance to developing countries, capture the essence that developed countries do not expect
developing countries in the course of negotiations to make contributions which are inconsistent with
their development, financial and trade needs.  My delegation in this context fully endorses the view
expressed in the proposal that the Agreement on Agriculture, therefore, must afford developing
countries to adopt reforms in a differential and more gradual basis and therefore, granting of longer
time frames as provided for in the Uruguay Round, for the implementation of commitments, will notsuffice.
As regards the specific proposal on export subsidies, while we agree with the proposal that
disciplines in export credit, credit guarantees or insurance programmes should be developed and that
development of these disciplines should provide flexibility for developing countries, we would wishto emphasise that in keeping with the obligations under paragraph 4 of the Marrakech Decision on
measures concerning the possible negative effects of the reform programme on LDCs and Net Food-
Importing Countries, that any agreement relating to agriculture export credit must appropriately
provide for differential treatment in favour of these countries.  On the question of export subsidies,
while I agree with the ASEAN paper that the developing countries must be able to continue usingexisting flexibilities with respect to export subsid ies as provided for in the Agreement on Agriculture,
it is also equally important to recognise the need to  strengthen the S&D provisions provided for in the
WTO Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, which have been meant to provide
much flexibility to address the developmental needs of developing countries.
On domestic support measures, while we support the general thrust of the proposal, we would
endorse, in particular, the proposal that developing countries must be given an effective and
meaningful degree of autonomy on policy instruments to address their food security concerns.  In this
regard, developing countries should be able to extend domestic support measures to increase domestic
food production, which do not enter the export market, which they use for domestic food securitypurposes.  This is a kind of flexibility already provided for in paragraph 8(b) of Article III ofG/AG/NG/W/83
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GATT 1994, for the goods sector.  In this regard, my delegation also wishes to reiterate the proposal
submitted by the Group of Eleven countries including Sri Lanka, "on S&D treatment and the
Development Box" contained in document G/AG/ NG/W/13, where we proposed that in order to
address food security concerns of developing countries they should be able to use a positive list
approach to declare which agricultural products or sectors they would wish to discipline under the
Agreement on Agriculture provisions, i.e. only the products which are declared by a country must be
subject to AoA commitments.  Secondly, when it is established that cheap imports are threatening
domestic producers, developing countries should be allowed to raise their tariff bindings on key
products to protect food security.  Thirdly, developing countries must be allowed additional 10 per
cent on their de minimis  domestic support level, i.e. to bring the level from 10 to 20 per cent.
On the ASEAN proposal on market access, we would endorse the proposal for non-
discriminatory allocation and administration of tariff quotas and we believe there is also the need to
simplify the administration of tariff quotas by developed countries to be transparent and equal for
trading partners and that TRQs should not be disguised quantitative restrictions.
On the proposal that the next Reform Programme must pursue the fullest liberalization of
trade in tropical products, by among others, applying further reduction and eliminating tariff peaks
and tariff escalation, my delegation wishes to reiterate the position that I stated during our
intervention at the last session.  In this context,  we support the ASEAN proposal for full liberalization
of trade in tropical products and we believe this should cover the dynamic sectors particularly
fisheries products, fruits and vegetables, tropical products, cut flowers which demonstrate highestexport growth rates and the best prospects fo r the future for the development countries.
In this connection, we also welcome and endorse the proposals by the Cairns Group on
market access, that under S&D provisions:
a) concrete and operational S&D treatment provisions for developing countries;
b) greater improvement of opportunities and terms of access for agriculture products
including the fullest liberalization of trade in tropical products;  and
c) faster and deeper cuts or elimination of tariffs on all agricultural products including
value-added products produced in and exported by the developing countries.
These proposals are indeed important proposals and we wish to convey our appreciation for
recognising and proposing that S&D treatment for developing countries should be made concrete and
operational.
On the proposal by the ASEAN paper that developing countries must be allowed the
flexibility to continue the application of special safeguard provisions, and the Cairns Group proposal
for the preservation of the current special safeguard for developing countries to assist with domesticand international agricultural reform efforts, our vi ew is that SSG provisions should be opened to all
developing countries and developing countries should be allowed to invoke this provision on lowprices or excess volume.  Criteria could be developed that countries whose bound tariff is below an
agreed threshold could automatically be entitled to use the SSG provision.
While on this subject of market access my delegation wishes to reiterate its position stated at
the last session, that any proposal to reduce tariffs from applied rates is not acceptable to us for thereasons highlighted previously.  We also stated in our previous statement that an appropriate formula
should be used to bring down high tariffs.  In this regard we welcome and endorse the proposal by the
Cairns Group for deep cuts to all tariffs using a formula approach which delivers greater reduction on
higher level tariffs including tariff peaks and eliminates tariff escalation, and establishes minimum
levels of all tariffs.  However, our view is that while the objective of using a formula is to reduce highG/AG/NG/W/83
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tariffs, it should not apply to tariffs that are below an agreed lower threshold, since this is important to
a number of developing countries who have undertaken autonomous liberalization measures and
introduced tariff reforms and apply generally very low tariffs and have no further flexibility to reduce
them.
In conclusion, while most of the developing countries need flexibility, in domestic policies
and support measures to address non-trade concerns such as food security, rural development, rural
employment and poverty alleviation, it is also important to provide stable and improved market access
opportunities to commodities, as well as value-added products that they export or have potential to
export to realise their developmental objectives.
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