RESTRICTED
WORLD TRADE G/AG/R/1
2May1995
ORGANIZATION(95-1125)
Committee onAgriculture
SUMMARY REPORT OFTHE MEETING HELD ON27-28 MARCH 1995
Note bytheSecretariat
1. TheCommitteeonAgriculturehelditsfirstmeetingon27-28March1995underthechairmanship
ofAmbassador Danai Tulalamba ofThailand. Theagenda ofthemeeting, contained inWTO/AIR/37,
wasadopted.
2. TheCommittee tooknoteofthedecision oftheGeneral Council permitting certain signatories
oftheFinal Acteligible tobecome original members oftheWTO, toparticipate informal andinformal
meetingsofWTObodiesotherthantheTextilesMonitoringBody(WT/L/27refers)andoftheguidelines
regarding theparticipation ofobserver governments (WT/L/28, Annex 2,paragraph 6refers).
Terms ofReference
3. TheCommittee tooknoteoftheterms ofreference oftheCommittee asadopted bytheWTO
General Council on31January 1995(WT/L/43), which provide that: "The Committee shalloversee
theimplementation oftheAgreement onAgriculture. TheCommittee shall afford members the
opportunity ofconsulting onanymatter relating totheimplementation oftheprovisions ofthe
Agreement." TheChairman recalled thattheAgreement onAgriculture ("the Agreement") referred
tointhese terms ofreference included theprovisions ofArticle 16oftheAgreement onAgriculture.
Organization ofWork andWorking Procedures
4. TheCommittee adopted thetextontheOrganization ofWork andWorking Procedures ofthe
CommitteecontainedindocumentG/AG/W/3,asamendedfollowingitsconsiderationbytheCommittee
(therevised texthasbeenissued asdocument G/AG/1), andonthebasisofthefollowing understandings:
(i) thatattheproceedings oftheCommittee would begoverned bytheworking procedures
and,asappropriate, andsubject thereto, bythecustomary GATT procedures and
practices;
(ii) thatattheappropriate stage theCommittee would consider rulesofprocedure based
onthose contained inWT/L/28 (rules oftheGeneral Council), withaview to
determining, interalia,theextent towhich these rulesofprocedure might beadapted
ormodified interms oftheneeds andfunctions oftheCommittee;
(iii) thatitwould beopentotheCommittee attheappropriate stage torevisit theworking
procedures, including paragraph 15thereof, inthelightofexperience;G/AG/R/1
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(iv) thatreports oftheCommittee 'sproceedings would taketheformofasummary tobe
prepared bytheSecretariat, onthebasisthatanydelegation may,attheirrequest, verify
those portions ofthedraftreport containing theirstatements, prior totheissuance of
theSecretariat summary report, inaccordance withthecustomary GATT practice.
Delegations thatwishtoavail themselves ofthisverification procedure, should so
indicate totheSecretariat within 10daysoftheclose ofthemeeting concerned.
Notification Requirements andFormats
5. TheChairman recalled thatthere wassubstantial agreement onthenotification formats and
requirements, asreflected inthereport made on28November 1994bytheChairman oftheInformal
Contact Group onAgriculture (PC/IPL/12). However, thiswasconditional, interalia,ontherebeing
agreement ondatainrespect oftotalexports being provided onascomparable abasis aspossible
(paragraph 1(c)ofdocument PC/IPL/12 refers). TheChairman welcomed theassurances ofanumber
ofMembers toprovide thedatainquestion, aswellasthestatement bytherepresentative oftheEC
thattheissue wasoneofatechnical nature rather thanoneofprinciple.
6. Thefollowing timelimits fornotifications under theAgreement asproposed indocument
PC/IPL/12 were approved bytheCommittee.
- Tariff andOther Quotas (Tables MA:1 andMA:2)
- Special Safeguard (Tables MA:3 toMA:5)
- NeworModified Domestic Support Measures Exempt fromReduction (Table DS:2)
- Export Prohibitions andRestrictions (Table ER:1)
- MeasuresConcerningthePossibleNegativeEffectsoftheReformProgrammeonLeast-
Developed andNetFood-Importing Developing Countries (Table NF:1).
7. With respect tonotification requirements relating toCurrent Total AMS commitments
(Table DS:1), anapproach proposed forconsideration wasthatannual notifications based onpreliminary
datashould besubmitted notlaterthan60or90daysfollowing therelevant period, withdefinitive
data, including actual budgetary outlays being notified assoonaspracticable thereafter.
8. Therepresentative ofArgentina, having noted thatthecondition thatthere beagreement on
thenotification requirements andformats asapackage hadnotyetbeenmet,indicated thathisdelegation
wouldhavetoreserveitspositionintheCommitteeandpossiblymoregenerally,unlessalltheconstituent
elements ofthepackage were finalized within aperiod of45days.
9. TheChairman noted that,while therewassubstantial agreement onthenotification requirements
andformats, including ontheiruseinthemeantime forthesubmission ofnotifications withrespect
tomarket access andother commitments asappropriate, further work wasnecessary inrespect ofthe
requirements onexport subsidies, thespecial agricultural safeguard andthetime-limits fordomestic
support notifications. TheChairman indicated thatitwould behisintention toorganize further informal
consultations onthissubject inatransparent manner before thenextmeeting oftheCommittee. The
Committee agreed that,inthemeantime, thenotification requirements andformats intheattachment
tothereportoftheInformalContactGrouponagriculture(PC/IPL/12),shouldberevisedtotakeaccount
oftheCommittee 'sdecisions onanumber ofthetimelimits andbere-issued asaworking document
oftheCommittee (G/AG/W/4), withacovering noteindicating theirstatus aspartofapackage.G/AG/R/1
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Implementation Dates
10. TheCommittee tooknoteoftheresults ofthework oftheSecretariat onimplementation dates
foreachtypeofcommitment (G/AG/W/1 and2refer). Itwasagreed thatareminder should besent
tothose delegations which hadyettospecify implementation datesfortheircommitments, withaview
tocompleting theinformation indocument G/AG/W/2.
Notifications totheCommittee
11. TheChairman noted thatthefollowing notifications hadbeenreceived:
(i) ontheadministration oftariff quotas (Table MA:1) from Canada, theUnited States,
NewZealand andAustralia.
(ii) ontrigger prices inthecontext ofthespecial safeguard (Table MA:4) fromtheUnited
States.
12. Therepresentative ofCanada sought clarification regarding thenotification ofandthe
implementation dates foraUnited States tariff quota foricecream, aswellaswithrespect tothe
difference between thetrigger prices asnotified indocument G/AG/N/USA/1 andthose specified in
theUnited States customs schedule. Therepresentative ofCanada alsoenquired whether anadditional
charge would automatically beimposed onimports entering theUnited States atprices below thetrigger
prices notified orwhether thesystem would beoperated onacase-by-case basis. Therepresentative
oftheUnited States indicated thatthepoints raised byCanada would beexamined andanswers provided.
13. Therepresentative ofSwitzerland expressed theviewthattheconditions ofArticle 5ofthe
Agreement onAgriculture hadtobefulfilled whenever special safeguard action wasactually resorted
toandthattherelevant notifications, whether up-front oradhoc,should contain alltheinformation
required interms ofArticle 5.Theup-front notification contained inG/AG/N/USA/1, forexample,
didnotprovide information onprices relating toeachyearofthebaseperiod, withtheresult thatsuch
notifications wereincomplete andwould therefore notconstitute asufficient basis fortheinvocation
oftheprice-based safeguard. Therepresentative oftheUnited States indicated thatitwashis
understanding oftherelationship between theup-front notification oftrigger prices forthespecial
safeguard andtheadhocnotifications (Table MA:4, Formats AandB,respectively, atpage10of
PC/IPL/12), thatitwasnotnecessary foramember making anup-front notification toalsomake adhoc
notifications andthatthiswasclearfromtheguidance noteinthechapeau toPartBoftheTable MA:4.
Therepresentative ofSwitzerland indicated thatArticle 5oftheAgreement wasquiteclearwithregard
tothekindofinformation thathadtobesupplied where recourse wasmade tothespecial safeguard
clause andthatinthese circumstances Switzerland would havetoreserve itsposition withregard to
thelegalvalue ofup-front notifications thatdidnotcontain thefullinformation required interms of
Article 5.
14. Therepresentative ofCanada indicated thatitwashisunderstanding thatgreen orbluebox
measures thathadbeennewly implemented ormodified sincethebaseperiod wererequired tobenotified
promptly. Therepresentative oftheECpointed outthatsuchnewormodified measures would be
incorporated aspartofthenotifications tobesubmitted inthecontext ofthedomestic support
commitments butthatitwasnottheunderstanding thattherewould beaspecial notification withrespect
togreen orblueboxmeasures atthisstage. Thefurther discussion onthispoint centred onwhether
thenotification requirement under Article 18:3oftheAgreement applied notonlytonewormodified
green orblueboxmeasures introduced following theentry intoforce oftheWTO butalsotomeasures
thathadbeenintroduced ormodified since thebaseperiod.G/AG/R/1
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15. TheChairman indicated thattherewould beanopportunity atthenextmeeting oftheCommittee
torevert tothenotifications presented andtothepoints raised thereon inthecourse ofthemeeting.
TheCommittee tooknoteofstatements made regarding theneed forthese members which had
implemented tariff quotas butwhich hadyettosubmit notifications inlinewithTable MA:1 onthe
administrationoftariffandotherquotacommitments,todosoattheearliestopportunity.TheCommittee
alsotooknoteofthestatement bytheChairman thattheSecretariat would continue toarrange forthe
original language version ofnotifications tobedistributed assoonaspossible inorder toavoid undue
delay between thereceipe ofnotifications bytheSecretariat andtheiravailability todelegations.
Other matters
16. TheCommittee tooknoteoftheunderstanding contained inparagraph 1(a)ofthereport of
theChairman oftheInformal Contact Group onAgriculture (PC/IPL/12) concerning therelationship
between theCommittee onAgriculture andtheCommittee onMarket Access. Thisunderstanding
provides: "thatmatters relating totariff concessions assuchshould, ingeneral, bedealtwithunder
therelevant GATT 1994 procedures andwithin theframework oftheWTO Committee onMarket
Access. Thiswould bewithout prejudice totherightofmembers under Article 18:6oftheAgreement
toraise anymatter relating totariff concessions onagricultural products intheCommittee on
Agriculture."
17. With regard totheoperations ofstatetrading enterprises inthecontext ofthenotification
requirements inrespect ofexport subsidy commitments anddisciplines, onwhich therehadbeenfurther
informal consultations inlinewithparagraph 1(f)ofPC/IPL/12, itwasnoted bytheChairman that
thiswasasubject which hadbeenflagged asamatter which anumber ofdelegations intended totake
upatafuture meeting oftheCommittee.
18. Inlinewiththesuggestions made itwasagreed bytheChairman thatthere should bean
opportunity atthenextmeeting oftheCommittee forsubstantive discussion ontheDecision onMeasures
concerning thepossible negative effects ofthereform programme onleast-developed andNetFood-
Importing Developing Countries.
19. TheCommittee wasinformed thatanumber ofinternational intergovernmental organizations
hadrequestedorexpressedtheirinterestinbeinggrantedobserverstatusintheCommitteeonAgriculture
(FAO, theUNWorld Food Programme, theOECD andtheInternational Wheat Council). Following
apreliminary exchange ofviews, theChairman indicated thatitwould behisintention toorganize
informal consultations onthissubject inadvance ofthenextmeeting oftheCommittee.
Dateofnextmeeting
20. Thenextmeeting oftheCommittee istobeheldon8and9June1995.