WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/AG/NG/W/130
14 February 2001
(01-0765)
Committee on Agriculture
Special SessionOriginal: English
WTO NEGOTIATIONS ON AGRICULTURE - PROPOSAL BY NIGERIA
Since the conclusion of the Uruguay Round Mult ilateral Trade Negotiations, the general
impression among developing countries is that they undertook commitments without being able to
adequately appreciate their attendant implications.  This view is strengthened by the fact that whilemany developing countries' expectations are yet to be fulfilled, there is growing concern that some of
the Uruguay Round rules did not actually take into account the weaker position and specific
constraints of developing countries in the new global economy.  The Agreement on Agriculture
(AoA), which deals with issues of vital importance to  all developing countries, is one such area, that
Nigeria believes was not adequately addressed from a developmental perspective.
The controversy over the WTO Agreement on Agriculture arises from the fact that while it is
often portrayed as a sweeping reform of world agricultural trade and a significant move towards
liberalization the reality is that although it may have involved a major change in the rules for
international agricultural trade, it has not brought about any significant reduction in border protection
or an increase in access to protected markets, le ading to distortions in commodity markets.  Taking
into account the varied interest of the major player s that shaped the final agriculture agreement, it is
now clear that their defensive strategies worked as their farmers continue to be heavily subsidized and
shielded from international competition.  Developing countries outside the Cairns Group, on the other
hand, have had a limited impact on the agenda for the agricultural negotiations and the outcome.  In
fact perhaps all that the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture did was to provide the necessary
ground work for the next round of negotiations and reform.
In Nigeria, the agricultural sector contributes to over 40 per cent of GDP at constant prices
and over 70 per cent of employment are in this sector.  Climatic and soil conditions allow Nigeria to
produce a wide variety of agricultural products in cluding food and cash crops.  The area currently
under cultivation (an estimated 34 million hectares) constitutes less than half of the potentialagricultural land, indicating that the sector has a strong growth potential.  Indeed, 70 per cent of the
nation's poor and 95 per cent of the extremely poor live in rural areas.  Under these circumstances,
Nigeria's agricultural policy objectives include:  to increase production of food;  increase production
of agricultural raw materials as inputs for the economy;  promote cash crop production as a source of
export diversification;  and enhance incomes of small farmers and households with a view toalleviating poverty and promoting rural development/employment.
Nigeria's expectations in the ongoing negotiations pursuant to Article 20 of the AoA is to
ensure equity and fairness in international trade in agriculture by the elimination of trade distorting
practices, while at the same time addressing the development concerns of developing countries andthe existing imbalances in the Agreement.  Nigeria will therefore support further work in the
following areas:
1. Market Access, Domestic Support and Export Subsidies
• Examine the major difficulties experienced with  respect to market access in international
trade in agriculture, especially for products of interest to developing countries andG/AG/NG/W/130
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consider specific and substantial proposals for further reduction in tariffs, rationalizing
the use of export subsidies and domestic support and limiting the use of special safeguard
provisions by developed countries;
• Inclusion of a provision for ceilings on tariff peaks in developed countries to be
complemented with expanded tariff quotas and lower in-quota tariffs;
• Tariff quotas to be made global, except in very exceptional cases;  and if country quotas
follow bilateral agreements, the global tariff quotas should be an additionality over these
countries' quotas, to be allocated to those that are not covered by bilateral country quotas;
• All subsidies covered by Article 6 of the Agreement should continue to have the benefit
of exemption from countervailing duty and Article 13 (Due Restraint Clause) as in the
case with those listed in Annex 2 to the Agreement, especially the investment and input
subsidies by developing countries;
• To ensure fairness in the system of commitment for reduction of import restraint,
domestic support and export subsidy, the limitations in these areas on countries that have
not included these measures in their schedules should be removed.  This is particularly
desirable, as countries who had notified their base support levels in their schedules have
been able to retain restraints and subsidization almost up to 65 to 80 per cent.  To ensure
equity and a balance of obligations, developing countries should be allowed to take new
measures, for instance in the area of domestic support, up to levels substantially higher
than the de minimis  levels.
2. Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures
• There is need for all Members to apply a unified set of international measures that are
reflective of the specific constraints of developing countries, so as to eliminate themisuse of SPS measures for protective purposes.
3. Special and Differential Treatment for Developing Countries
• S&D measures should give realistic equity to developing countries, taking into
consideration factual developmental constraints militating against their active participationin world trade;
• Commitments, obligations and concessions in all areas should be commensurate with
capabilities of developing countries, taking into account trade, financial and developmental
positions;
• Technical assistance to facilitate the full integration of developing countries into the
system, as well as to support and sustain increased domestic production should become
part of the provisions of the Agreement on Agriculture;
• Specifically, the negotiations should recognize the need for flexibility for developing
countries in the following areas:
(i) flexibility in reducing tariffs, particularly on sensitive products;
(ii) flexibility on domestic support measures to be able to address the concerns of
the rural population in this sector for the sustenance of their livelihood and
employment;  andG/AG/NG/W/130
Page 3
(iii) flexibility on attainment of certain degree of food self sufficiency to ensure
that all/any measures aimed at enhancing domestic production is exempt
from reduction commitments.
4. Food Security
Maintaining food security is of vital importance to Nigeria and most developing countries.
Action in the new negotiations must therefore focus on:
• Increasing flexibility for developing countries to use domestic support measures aimed at
maintaining food security and enhancing the incomes of small farmers and households;
• Decreasing the levels of protection and support in developed countries which have
possible distortive effects on trade in agricultural products;
• Increasing the level of commitments by the developed countries to address concerns
relating to food aid, problems of net food-importing developing countries (NFIDCs) and
the food needs of LDCs, particularly in times of emergency;
• Concrete action with respect to the problems of net food-importing countries;
• Flexibility regarding import restraint and domestic subsidy for the protection of, and
support to household subsistence farming and small-scale farming in countries where
such farming is very important;
• Subsidies by developing countries for the purchase of food products for public stocking
should be excluded from the aggregate measure of support (AMS), as is the case withother exempted subsidies;
• Developing countries experiencing foreign exchange difficulties for the purchase of
imported food for their population should be allowed to encourage and develop theirdomestic food production;  and to that extent should also be permitted to protect their
production against cheap food imports as well as provide domestic support for food
production.
5. Disciplines on International Market St ructure and Competition in Agriculture
The Agreement on Agriculture set out to addre ss distortions in world agricultural markets
while taking into account non-trade concerns, including food security:
• Neither objective can be realized unless the role of multinationals in these markets could
be better understood and regulated;
• Hence, the needs to ensure that developing countries' food needs are not sacrificed to
multinational interest in expanded stockholder value.
6. Transparency and Provision of Information
• There is need for adequate information about what is happening in the world agricultural
market, especially regarding the operations of international multinational companies, and
what they control;
• The questionnaire approach for state trading enterprises may be expanded to include
multinational companies, with a requirement for notification of relevant information;G/AG/NG/W/130
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• The WTO Secretariat should also review these companies as part of the Trade Policy
Review process of Member countries;
• FAO and/or UNCTAD should establish da ta banks containing comprehensive
information on the major players in the world food system;
• Ensure some predictability about the specific products and rates in the care of domestic
support.  Countries should be required to announce plans of their allowance expenditureof domestic support within commitment levels in advance.
This submission broadly outlines the essential elements regarding those areas that Nigeria
believes Members should commit themselves to improve the overall balance and effectiveness of the
AoA.
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