Ambassador Crawford Falconer, chairperson of the agriculture negotiations at the World Trade Organisation, circulated the second instalment of his ‘challenges’ paper on May 25, 2007.

The new text contained his ideas on where members’ positions might converge on issues that were not included in his first instalment released on April 30 (see earlier report ‘Falconer suggests way out of agriculture impasse’).

On the Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM), Falconer made it clear that there were no attempts to renegotiate what had already been agreed in the Hong Kong Ministerial. He emphasised the need to ensure that the spirit of the SSM was upheld so as to make it “workable and responsive to genuine need”. The concept to focus on is how to reasonably ensure that “normal” trade is not disrupted while genuinely “special” situations can be responded to flexibly.

The object of the SSM is to provide a special safeguard that responds to the needs of farmers in developing countries, that is, rural development, food security and livelihood security needs. “I would suggest we look seriously at the concept that it should be in principle applicable anywhere there is domestic or substitutable production.” 

As regards the quantity trigger, Falconer said the basic choice delegations face is whether to have a simple single trigger and single remedy, or a number of triggers and an escalating series of remedies.  If the aim is to have something simple then a single trigger/single remedy approach would seem more appropriate.

Falconer has also commented on tropical and diversification products, the modalities for fuller integration of small, vulnerable economies into the multilateral trading system “without creating a sub-category of members” and amendments to the Green Box, where “some degree of convergence emerged”.  

To view Falconer’s paper visit http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/agric_e/
agchairtxt_25may07_e.doc.

May 27, 2007