WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/L/473
25 June 2002
(02-3536)
Original:  English
MINISTERIAL MEETING ON NON-TRADE CONCERNS
Rome, Italy
14 June 2002
Communication from Japan
The following communiqué from the Ministerial Meeting on non-trade concerns held in
Rome, Italy on 14 June 2002 has been received from the Permanent Mission of Japan with the request
that it be circulated to Members.
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Press Release for NTC-IV Ministerial Meeting
FURTHER COMMITMENTS IN THE WTO  NEED TO ADDRESS NON -TRADE CONCERNS
The Doha Ministerial Declaration includes the provision that non-trade concerns will be
duly covered in the WTO negotiations on agriculture.  The participants in the Ministerial meeting
held in Rome on 14th June stressed their determination that this commitment will be fully
honoured. Every country has a legitimate right to pursue non-trade objectives such as
strengthening the socio-economic viability and de velopment of rural areas, food security and
environmental protection.  These objectives cannot  be achieved by market forces alone. In the
modalities for further commitments that will be established next March in the WTO Agricultural
Negotiations, non-trade concerns of both developing and developed countries are elements of vital
importance to be duly taken into account in order to establish an agricultural trading system which
is fair as well as market oriented.  Each country must therefore be able to accommodate suchconcerns through a variety of instruments.
54 Ministers and Representatives from Members and Observers of WTO gathered in Rome to
coordinate their views on the part that non-trade concerns should play in the WTO negotiations on
agriculture.  The meeting was organised by the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr. FranzFischler, Mr. Tsutomu Takebe, Minister of Agri culture of Japan, Mr. Kim Dong-Tae, Minister of
Agriculture from the Republic of Korea, Mr. Anil  Kumarsingh Gayan, Minister of Foreign Affairs
and Regional Co-operation of Mauritius, Mr. Lars Sponheim, Minister of Agriculture of Norway and
by Switzerland, and attended by another 48 Ministers and representatives from Members and
Observers comprising developed countries, economies in transition, custom territories and developingcountries including least-developed countries, land-locked countries and small island developing
states, all of whom have a keen interest in securing their systems of agriculture in the context of the
multilateral trading system.
After the adoption of Doha Ministerial Declaration, the negotiations on agriculture have now
entered  the crucial phase of the establishment by 31 March 2003 of the modalities for furtherWT/L/473
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commitments on market access, domestic support and export competition.  In this context, Ministers
focused their discussion on policy measures and instruments to address non-trade concerns, in
particular rural development, food security and protection of the environment, as well as the scope of
modalities which should be designed to duly cover non-trade concerns, building on the outcome of the
NTC Conferences held in Ullensvang, Norway in July 2000, in Mauritius in May 2001 and in Doha inNovember 2001.
Ministers underlined the diversity of situations both with respect to their priorities and
production conditions, and that a one-size-fits-all approach will not be appropriate to address non-
trade concerns, but shared their genuine interest in ensuring that further trade reform should be
pursued in harmony with the safeguard of legitimate non-trade concerns.
On rural development, while the priorities of various countries are diverse, all the countries
need to preserve or develop the economic and social environment necessary to maintain rural
population.  Agricultural activity plays an important role in this endeavour.
On food security, all countries have to ensure food security for their people, through a mixture
of domestic production, imports and, where appropriate, public stockholding.
On environment all countries reaffirmed the importance of agriculture for issues such as
conservation of biological diversity, maintenance of farmed landscapes, clean energy and protection
against disasters.
Reaffirming their commitment to strengthenin g the multilateral agricultural trading system
through the continuation of the reform process as foreseen in Article 20 of the Agreement on
Agriculture and the Doha Declaration, Ministers emphasised that these non-trade concerns cannot be
adequately addressed without domestic agricultural production, and that the multilateral rules need to
acknowledge and secure, through a variety of instruments, the continued coexistence of various typesof agriculture in both high- and low-potential areas based on each country’s specific conditions and
historical and cultural background.
It was also recognised that addressing non-trade concerns calls for resources and that, for
vulnerable developing countries, in particular least-developed countries, land-locked countries, small
island developing states and vulnerable economies in transition, preferential market access is a key
means to obtaining these resources.WT/L/473
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List of Participants
Albania Hungary Senegal
Angola Iceland Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan,
Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu (Chinese
Taipei)
Armenia Israel Slovak RepublicBahrain Japan Slovenia
Bangladesh Jordan Suriname
Barbados Kazakhstan SwitzerlandBenin Korea TanzaniaBotswana Latvia TunisiaBulgaria Lithuania Turkey
Burundi Madagascar Yugoslavia
Côte d'Ivoire MaltaCyprus MauritaniaCzech Republic MauritiusDemocratic Republic of Congo MongoliaEstonia Mozambique
Ethiopia Namibia
European Community NorwayFiji People's Republic of ChinaGabon PolandGhana Russia
Guinea Rwanda
Guyana Saint Lucia
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