WTO agriculture negotiations continue, and progress is being reported by New Zealand Ambassador David Walker, who chairs the talks. Walker termed the talks as an informal agriculture negotiations meeting of the full membership. The present consultations began on Feb. 1 and according to Walker are providing some useful opportunities for discussion, and in each case there's on-going work to be done of one form or another.
Walker's meetings with smaller groups of members have covered four topics in particular: 1/ The special safeguard mechanism, a tool that will allow developing countries to raise tariffs temporarily to deal with import surges or price falls; 2/ Tariff simplification, or ending the use of complex tariffs so that most or all end up as straight percentages of the price, with some possibly left as "specific" duties. 3/ Tariff quota creation, which is shorthand for whether sensitive products, which will have smaller tariff cuts than normal, can only be products that already have "tariff quotas"; and 4/ Concerning tropical products and products enjoying preferences.
Members are looking at a draft compromise, and Walker reports gradual progress in the separate technical work on "templates" and data.
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