. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/AG/NG/W/65
30 November 2000
(00-5176)
Committee on Agriculture
Special SessionOriginal:  English
FOURTH SPECIAL SESSION OF THE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE
15-17 NOVEMBER 2000
Statement by the Czech Republic
Non-Trade Concerns   (G/AG/NG/W/36)
We are happy to take the floor to address the issue of non-trade concerns to which the Czech
Republic attaches particular importance.
At the outset, let me underline that my delegation fully concurs with what is contained in the
Note on non-trade concerns submitted by a Group of countries and distributed in WTO document
G/AG/NG/W/36.  Indeed, there should be no doubt that  non-trade concerns represent an integral part
of Article 20 of the Agreement on Agriculture and that these concerns have to be taken into account inthe ongoing agricultural negotiations.
Moreover, we envisage, as mentioned in the Preamble to the Agreement, that any
commitments resulting from negotiations will be made in an equitable way among all Members and
will be balanced against non-trade concerns as well as other specified policy orientations.
The six papers which have been attached to the Note helped those who attended a Conference
on Non-Trade Concerns in Agriculture held in Ullensvang earlier this year to stimulate a discussion.
And although positions regarding various aspects contained in those papers may differ, countries
co-sponsoring the Note are unanimous in recognizing that every country has the right, in accordance
with mutually agreed rules, to address non-tr ade concerns such as those listed therein.
Now I wish to take up the issue at stake from our perspective and in doing so I will be
focusing our attention today on environmentally related non-trade concerns.  Other aspects of
non-trade concerns will be addressed later.
At the very outset, let me recall that the Czech Republic is a rather small, land-locked country
with a very diversified character of its landscape.  This makes its agricultural policy and the land and
natural resources management particularly difficult, as substantially different conditions on a small
scale have to be addressed.  The situation is further complicated by the need to redress the
consequences of the farming under the former centrally planned economy.
Nature and landscape form a part of a national heritage.  The overall economic well-being
and, in many aspects, also cultural riches depend on conditions in which we maintain them.  Thus, the
protection of natural resources is in the public interest.  Maintenance and support of biological
diversity, preservation of natural soil fertility, favourable composition of water regime and functional
use of the area providing for conservation of natural and cultural values of the landscape are values of
a strategic importance which the Government has to take care of.G/AG/NG/W/65
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The landscape as a whole and its various natural components have experienced significant
changes during the last decades which, together with waning animal and plant species, are the most
important indicators showing the environmental degradation.  This is particularly due to a
long-running and one-sided exploitation of natural resources taking place without regard to interests
of nature conservation.  Inadequate intensification of agricultural and forest production, inappropriatetechnical adjustments, excessive pollution of water sources and unrestrained urbanization process in
many areas have been typical examples of that.  Large scale production of minerals has effected
environmental functions of the landscape in part of the territory.  Vast areas of it have been damaged
by high pollution produced by industrial, energetic and mobile sources which has resulted in a critical
level of forests and thus threatened and impaired stability of water regime.  The most negative
consequences of such a development are the losses of the natural soil fertility and of water retention as
well as the decrease in biological diversity and quantity of populations of original plant and animalspecies.  Moreover, orchards areas which used to influence the landscape positively have diminished
quite considerably.
The above-mentioned facts show that agriculture is inseparable from the protection of the
environment and conservation of national culture and has important functions which are notnecessarily related to economic objectives.  This is why we are extremely sensitive when talking
about environmentally related non-trade concerns.
The Czech Republic has been facing too many challenges "inherited"  in this area from the
past and therefore even ten years of transformation proved not to be sufficient to address themproperly and in a satisfactory manner.  Former systems of agricultural exploitation through so-called
"Unified Co-operatives" gave rise to a problem of an inappropriately high proportion of arable land
and intensive large-scale farming, also entailing excessive size of scopes, extensive amelioration,
excessive use of industrial fertilizers and pesticides or disturbed natural infrastructure.  Despite some
positive results achieved so far (such as partial decrease of share of arable land, decreasingconsumption of fertilizers and pesticides), we cannot consider these problems as solved yet and the
reform of our agricultural sector has to continue.
It is apparent from the above mentioned that agriculture  supports directly the  infrastructure
and the quality of the environment.  At the same time, it may be said that farmers, by doing their
business, also serve as natural providers of environmental services.
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