WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/GC/W/318
15 September 1999
(99-3800)
General Council Original:  English
PREPARATIONS FOR THE 1999 MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
Negotiations on Agriculture
Proposal under Paragraph 9(a)(ii) of the Geneva Ministerial Declaration
Communication from Romania
The following communication, dated 7 September 1999, has been received from the
Permanent Mission of Romania.
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Background
1. Romania considers the future negotiations on agriculture as an integral part of the next
comprehensive multilateral trade negotiations. The negotiations in agriculture should be based on
Article 20 of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture with the aim to continue the process reform of trade
in agriculture as defined by the Agreement, taking into account:
- the experience in the implementation of the reduction commitments;
- the effects of these commitments on the world trade in agriculture products;
- non-trade concerns;
- special and differential treatment to developing-country Members;- the objective to establish a fair and market-oriented agricultural trading system;  and
- what further commitments are necessary in order to achieve the long-term objective
as encompassed in the Agreement.
In pursuing these goals, the future negotiations on agriculture should include the following
main areas.
Market access
2. The negotiations should aim to further reduce the level of tariff protection, resulting from the
Uruguay Round negotiations, in order to provide for increased market access opportunities, especially
for developing countries and economies in transition.WT/GC/W/318
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Tariff quota administration
3. Taking into consideration the large variety of TRQ administration methods utilized by
Members, which in some cases altered the permissibility and transparency of these commitments, a
homogenous transparent and previsible system of TRQ administration procedures should bedeveloped.
4. Such a system should aim at a fair and equitable market access, providing equal access
opportunities for all WTO Members and avoiding any non-transparent method of TRQ allocation.
Domestic support
5. The present classification of domestic support, as well as the main components of domestic
support such as AMS, the relevant criteria and the de minimis  levels, have their rationale rooted in the
Uruguay Round negotiations.
6. One of the goals of the future negotiations should be to further clarify and better define
domestic support measures in order to identify and agree upon the inclusion of such measures to allow
the continuation and the coexistence of the various types of agricultural policies specific for differentWTO Members, with particular attention to the needs of the transition economy Member countries.
7. The current figure of the “ de minimis ” level of AMS for developing countries should be
increased above 10 per cent in order to allow greater opportunities to cope with the challenges of the
development and transition process.
Export subsidies
8. The negotiations on agriculture should continue the process of reduction in export subsidy
commitments. The right to provide export subsidies should be continued for those Members realizing
medium and small-sized agricultural production levels, in order to allow them to maintain and to
develop their national agricultural sector and to cope with food security problems thus enabling therevenues necessary for paying the import bills for complementary agricultural products.
Non-trade concerns
9.  Non-trade concerns are an integral part of the objectives of the mandated negotiations on
agriculture and should include, among others, the problem of food security, sustainability of rural
development and maintenance of the local rural community.  These kinds of concerns are of a general
common importance for the majority of the WTO constituency.
Special and differential treatment for developing countries
10. As stipulated both in the “Preamble” and in Article 20 of the WTO Agreement on
Agriculture, an integral element of the reform process of the sector is the special and differential
treatment to developing-country Members.
11. Romania considers that is necessary that the future facilities which will be negotiated under
S&D treatment provisions should be better and more clearly defined in order to generate real benefits
for these countries and to support them in pursuing sound development policies.WT/GC/W/318
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Proposal
12. The future negotiations, based on Article 20 of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture, shall aim
to continue the process of reform of trade in agriculture through further market access commitments
and homogeneous disciplines in TRQ administration, reduction in export subsidies and domesticsupport, taking into consideration the specific interests of the developing countries and of the
transition economy Member countries and recognizing the existence of a number of non-trade
concerns to be dealt with.
13. The outcome of the future agriculture negotiations should encompass a balanced package of
commitments, acceptable and equitable for all WTO Members. Such a package should not allow the
opportunity that a Member enjoys “ de facto ” cumulative benefits deriving from a neutral and
multilateral framework, which could undermine or impair the negotiated benefits of other WTOMembers.
14. The outcome should also contribute to establish a fair and market oriented agricultural trading
system.  In compliance with this already agreed objective, the importing Members encountering
economic difficulties in supporting and reforming their agriculture, in particular the developing
countries and the transition economy Member countries should be allowed to apply the agreed tariffreduction commitments only to those imports not subject to export subsidies in the exporting Member.
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