Ahead of the WTO ministerial conference to be held in Buenos Aires in December, the EU and Brazil, two of the largest agricultural producers in the world, on Monday 17 July put a proposal to reform domestic support for agricultural production on the table of the WTO talks.
The EU and Brazil are proposing to create a level playing field for the WTO member countries by limiting trade-distorting aid to agricultural production and adjusting aid to the size of the agricultural sector in each country.
The two sides also propose to take into account the specific needs of the developing countries and to exempt them from any limits on domestic support, in order to allow for the development of their farming sector. Other developing countries would have greater margin to support their farmers in a more generous way and would be given more time to adapt. The proposal also tackles trade-distorting subsidies in the cotton sector.
As regards public stockholding the food security purposes, the EU/Brazil proposal will implement the mandate of the WTO ministerial conference of Bali in 2013 to reconcile existing public practices with the WTO subsidy rules. The rules on these stockholding regimes would be tightened up and accompanied by measures aiming to avoid negative effects on the market.
"This proposal should lead other WTO members to follow our example and so ensure a level playing field for all farmers in the local, regional and global markets", Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan commented on Monday, welcoming the fact that the EU and Brazil have taken a leadership role on reforming domestic support for agriculture, after having driven reforms in export subsidies agreed by the WTO member countries at the ministerial conference of Nairobi in 2013 (see EUROPE 11458)
Colombia, Peru and Uruguay have announced that they support the proposed reform of domestic support tabled by the EU and Brazil.
Reducing domestic support is the priority question of the talks on the agricultural plank of the Doha round, ahead of the WTO ministerial conference of Buenos Aires (see EUROPE 11803).
On Monday, the EU also said that it would support new solutions for other issues to be discussed in Buenos Aires, such as fishing subsidies, e-commerce, national rules on services, transparency for SMEs and facilitating investment. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)