G/AG/GEN/233   
8 May 2024  
(24-3646) Page: 1/3 
Committee on Agriculture  Original: Spanish  
 
  
THE IICA IN THE WTO COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE  
WORK PLAN XIV:  
MAY TO DECEMBER 2024  
SUBMISSION BY THE IICA  
The following submission, dated 8 May 2024, is being circulated at the request of the Inter -American 
Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).  
 
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 G/AG/GEN/233  
 
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  1  BACKGROUND  
1.1.  In March 2010, the Committee on Agriculture of the World Trade Organization (WTO) granted 
the IICA ad hoc  observer status in its regular meetings. Since June 2012, the IICA has been 
operatin g a WTO Reference Centre, which provides technical advisory services in connection with 
various areas of agricultural trade to individuals from government, business and academic circles 
that are interested in improving their technical capacity in these are as. 
1.2.  A number of joint technical cooperation activities have been conducted within the framework 
of the existing alliance between the IICA and the WTO on agricultural subjects of particular interest 
to the two institutions and their member countries. It sho uld also be noted that the IICA has had 
ad hoc observer status in the WTO Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures since 1999.  
1.3.  In this context, the IICA submitted 12 annual joint work plans between 2010 and 2023 
(documents G/AG/GEN/92 , G/AG/GEN/95 , G/AG/GEN/105 , G/AG/GEN/115 , G/AG/GEN/125 , 
G/AG/GEN/132 , G/AG/GEN/139 , G/AG/GEN/145 , G/AG/GEN/150 , G/AG/GEN/158 , G/AG/GEN/185 , 
G/AG/GEN/200  and G/AG/GEN/220 ). 
1.4.  In order to ensure the continuity of the IICA's commitment, a 14th joint work plan has been 
drafted and will be presented to WTO Members at the regular meeting of the Committee on 
Agriculture to be held on 23 and 24 May 2024.  
2  ACTIVITIES TO BE DEVELOPED IN  RELATION TO THE WORK OF THE COMMITTEE ON 
AGRICULTURE  
2.1.  The following activities are under consideration:  
a. Participation in and attendance at meetings of the Committee on Agriculture : The 
IICA, as an observer organization, undertakes to participate in -person or virtually in the 
regular meetings of this Committee held at the WTO and in those involving matters within 
the competence of the Institute's member States. Following these meetings, the IICA will 
systematize key information, both for national and regiona l bodies involved in agricultural 
trade and for the business and academic sectors of IICA member States.  
b. Support for technical cooperation activities related to agricultural trade : The IICA 
will support technical cooperation activities at the hemispheric, regional and national levels 
geared towards ministries of agriculture, competent entities involved in agricultural trade 
and ministerial bodies. Some of this support is designed to enhance the impact of the IICA 
and its partnership with the WTO in the deve lopment of such activities. A recent example 
was the "Technical Dialogue on Agricultural Trade Policy in Guatemala", which took place 
on 18 April this year. A trade issues analysis workshop for the ministers of agriculture of 
member countries of the Centra l American Agricultural Council (CAC) will be held on 
30 and 31 May.  
c. Monitoring areas of common interest : The IICA will monitor the progress of the 
agricultural trade negotiations at the WTO and will prepare technically to respond to the 
requests of its me mber States in the area of agricultural trade policy and to develop 
possible training programmes in areas of common interest with other technical partners. 
The IICA will, in turn, make its technical staff available to the WTO should it require support 
in respect of requests for technical advice and training (in particular in Latin America and 
the Caribbean) related to matters such as bioeconomy and innovation; family farming and 
territorial development; food health, quality and safety; climate change and ag ricultural 
resilience; and gender and youth.  
In this connection, the IICA and the WTO are organizing a regional workshop on trade, 
gender and food security for Latin American countries, which will be held at the IICA's 
central headquarters in October.  
The IICA is also organizing an in -person meeting between agricultural negotiators in 
Geneva and the trade and/or agriculture ministries of Latin American countries, with a 
view to further  defining positions regarding  agricultural trade negotiations.  G/AG/GEN/233  
 
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  d. Compliance  by countries with agricultural notification requirements : In document 
G/AG/GEN/86/Rev.51  of November 2023, the Committee identified countries that have 
fallen behind in submitting agricultural notifications. In this light, the IICA will continue to 
support the WTO's initiatives to conduct activities including national and/or regional 
workshops and other training events that are geared towards Latin American and 
Caribbean countries to help them to improve their transparency commitments and  ensure 
they are up to date with those commitments. Similarly, it will support and channel national 
and regional initiatives that require WTO technical cooperation.  
e. Preparation of technical documents : Given the IICA's extensive and proven 
experience in thi s area, it will assist the WTO Secretariat with such activities at the 
Committee's request.  
At the beginning of this year, the IICA and the WTO held a technical event within the 
framework of the Thirteenth WTO Ministerial Conference to provide information on a joint 
publication entitled "Delegates' Handbook on Participation in the WTO Committee on 
Agriculture1", which was drafted to enhance member countries' participation in Committee 
on Agriculture  meetings.  
This year, the IICA will be publishing at least one technical document relating to  one of 
the negotiating topics , which will  serve as input to feed trade negotiation discussions for 
Latin American countries.  
3  TRADE AND AGRICULTURAL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITHIN THE  INSTITUTE  
3.1.  The IICA's activities in the WTO will be conducted within the framework of the IICA's Technical 
Cooperation Directorate, which will be responsible for implementing this work plan. The 
implementation of the plan will promote knowledge management and support the work carried out 
under the IICA's International Trade and Regional Integration Programme through its action lines 
on trade policy; market access; trade promotion and internationalization of businesses; coordination 
through technical coopera tion services; and mobilization of relevant resources for inter -American 
agriculture, in accordance with the IICA's 2022 -2026 Medium -term Plan . 
3.2.  The IICA has an experienced network of experts in agriculture and international trade based 
at its central headq uarters, at its offices in 34 member countries in the Americas and at its 
Permanent Office for Europe, in Spain.  
3.3.  For further information, please contact:  
Adriana Campos Azofeifa  Daniel Rodríguez Sáenz  
Technical specialist , International Trade and 
Regional Integration Programme (IICA)  
Email: adriana.campos@iica.int  Manager , International Trade and Regional 
Integration Programme (IICA)  
Email: daniel.rodriguez@iica.int  
 
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1 Available at: https://repositorio.iica.int/handle/11324/22027