JOB/AG/153  
 
25 February 2019  
(19-1055) Page: 1/3 
Committee on Agriculture  
Special Session    
 
REPORT BY AMB. J. R.  D. (DEEP) FORD TO T HE  
COMMITTEE ON AGRICUL TURE IN SPECIAL SESS ION 
14 FEBRUARY 2019  
1.   I would like to welcome delegations to our first informal open -ended meeting of the Committee 
on Agriculture in Special Session for 2019. This first meeting will focus on D omestic Support  (DS) 
and will be followed immediately by a meeting in dedicated session on P ublic Stockholding for Food 
Security Purposes  (PSH) . 
 
2.   Let me take a few moments to briefly recap and look forward:  
 
3.   Last year, 2018, we stre ssed increased information development, information sharing, we 
tried to advance and advocate on transparency and greater understanding – we reflected on:  
• The lessons learnt pre -MC11 and at MC11 – and one important lesson was that we must 
not run out of ti me. This time around we must use time more productively;  
• We have had a lot of good interventions, papers tabled, papers presented, increased 
appreciation of agricultural negotiations landscape in all its dimensions – thanks to all the 
Members for their 201 8 contributions in this regard;  
• We have skirted around how to take into account the work undertaken before MC11 – we 
have not been as forthright as I would like us to be on this and perhaps we need to reflect 
more in this regard;  
• We have had dedicated sess ions on all of the CoA  Special Session  topics, but we have not 
been able to prioritize or even better agree on some elements – it is urgent that we make 
progress in this regard;  
• We have raised the dimensions of the issues we need to address, we raised a se ries of 
topic by topic questions on substance, as well as complementary questions on how to bridge 
the information gaps on the different negotiating issues, as well as questions on the thorny 
and more difficult aspects of the topics;  
• My assessment is that all this work has been useful – Members reaffirmed the central role 
of agriculture and their strong commitment to the negotiations, Members have 
demonstrated a high level of interactive engagement in the discussions, and we have 
enhanced our understanding of the relevant issues, largely due, as I have mentioned 
before, to the submissions and presentations by Members. Certainly we can congratulate 
ourselves – but we cannot be satisfied;  
• Thus, we decided in December last year to try another angle, to add ano ther track – we 
decided to engage in 2019 in a phase of Members -led open -ended W orking Groups (WGs) 
on the seven topics in the agriculture negotiations. We know them well: DS, PSH, Cotton, 
Market Access  (MA), Special Safeguard Mechanism  (SSM) , Export Compe tition (EC) and 
Export Restrictions  (ER); 
• The work of the WGs and of the CoA  Special Session  will be mutually supportive and 
synchronized. The WGs will provide inputs for the discussions in the CoA  Special Session , 
which I hope will ensure integration acro ss the different aspects and promote synergies. 
The deliberations in the CoA  Special Session  will, in turn, help advance the work o f the 
WGs, as they will enable C oordinators to focus on the problems and priorities identified by 
Members here today.  JOB/AG/153  
 
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  4.   I laid out the working procedures of the WG s and the fundamental principles that would guide 
their work in my communication circulated on 17 January – we stressed a number of important 
words in our deliberations: inclusive, informal, interactive, cooperati ve, collaborative, and 
convergence building.  
5.   I announced the final list of Coordinators in my communication circulated on 31 January.  
 
6.   I want to take this opportunity to warmly and kindly thank the Coordinators for their 
willingness to help us with the cr itical role and the goal as a part of our ongoing process.  
 
7.   I met with all of the Coordinators following their appointment and I must say they constitute 
a great and representative team with whom I intend to work very closely in the coming weeks and 
hopef ully months, of course, with the able support of the Secretariat.  
 
8.   To refresh your memory, the C oordinators are:  
• on DS – Mr. Craig DOUGLAS (Jamaica) and Mr. David REID (New Zealand);  
• on PSH – Mr. Alf VEDERHUS (Norway);  
• on MA – Mr. Richard EMERSON (Austr alia) and Mr. Mohsin RAFIQ (Pakistan);  
• on SSM – Mr. Bruno HAESSIG (Switzerland);  
• on EC – Mr. Greg MACDONALD (Canada) and Ms. Noncedo VUTULA (South Africa);  
• on ER – Mr. Yasuyuki KOBAYASHI (Japan) and Mr. Gabriel MARTINEZ (Argentina);  
• on Cotton, the meetings  will continue in the Cotton Quad plus format, under my 
Chairmanship and in the technical level with Daniel COSTA FIGUEREIDO (Brazil) as Friend 
of the Chair.  
 
9.   This WG process will take place in phases. The first two W Gs on DS and PSH have already met 
on 5 February and we will listen to  the reports by the respective C oordinators today.  
  
10.   These two WGs will continue their wo rk in the coming weeks and the C oordinators will provide 
reports at the CoA  Special Session  meetings scheduled in March and April.  
 
11.   The WGs on M A and SSM will start their work after this meeting and report to the  CoA Special 
Session  meetings in March and April.  
 
12.   Finally, the WGs on E C and E R will begin work after the March CoA  Special Session  and report 
for the first time to the April CoA  Special Session .  
 
13.   Cotton will continue to be addressed in the Cotton Quad plus format and will provide an update 
at each CoA  Special Session . The first Cotton Quad Plus Coordinator led meeting is tomorrow at 
15:00 . 
 
14.   In parallel to the WG  meetings, there will be, of course, two other meetings of the CoA  Special 
Session  scheduled now for 14 -15 March and 11 -12 April. A further review of the state of play and 
our processes, the WGs and other efforts, will be undertaken in April and a work pro cess and 
schedule for May to the end of July will then be developed and circulated.  
 
15.   I cannot emphasize enough the critical importance of the WGs ' process in this immediate 
period ahead of us and you will be seeing, I hope shortly, what I mean by that.  
 
16.   The ultimate goal is to achieve an outcome in the agriculture negotiations by bridging the gaps 
in Members ' negotiating positions on the issues under consideration. Increasingly,  the WGs  will focus 
on the details of differences and help us toward that ultim ate goal.  
 
17.   The immediate goal is to better understand the differences in each thematic area – the 
expectations that are on the table, the perceptions that we have and hopefully share, the needs of 
Members, and their demands – the aspects that if we do not  understand better and resolve, we risk 
preventing any outcome. We need to jointly and collaboratively investigate, from all viewpoints, how 
these differences can be reduced and, more importantly, can be removed.  JOB/AG/153  
 
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18.   Inevitably, we have to generate lists of alternatives, proposals around which we have more 
intense consideration and possible resolution.   
 
19.   Once we begin to have a limited number of related options, we should be moving toward a 
core incremental package that constitutes an outcome in the agricult ure negotiations, I will say 
today humbly for MC12. We will be looking to see what we can achieve before MC12.  
 
20.   I am convinced that the understanding of issues has improved due to numerous submissions 
and presentations. I urge a continued high level of en gagement, and more submissions, but 
submissions that are more purposefully prepared and presented towards problem solving and gap 
bridging so that we move more urgently toward narrowing the differences that exist.  
 
21.   I said earlier that time ran out for MC11 . I am committed to not letting this happen. If we do 
not get there, it will not be because time ran out. Most of the negotiating issues need resolution 
therefore before Astana. We have to find a step -by-step progress, incremental achievements during 
the course of this year.  
 
22.   I hope that you will be convinced as I am that through your submissions and the WGs' process, 
and our other deliberations in different formats, we can get to our goals.  
 
23.   On my side, all I can say to you is that I will continue to invest most of my energy, and I will 
provide all of the supp ort that I can to the WGs, the C oordinators, to all the Members to ensure that 
this process brings us closer to a landing zone in the co ntext of the Agreement  on Agriculture . I will 
seek every avenue acceptable to Members to make progress. This would require flexibility on the 
part of all Members and courage to leave comfort zones and positions, where necessary.  
 
24.   I once said earlier that t his is our Geneva challenge and I am absolutely convinced that if we 
have frank, interactive, informal, cordial, collaborative, cooperative and focused problem -solving 
discussions, we can enable ourselves to take the decisive steps that we need to take to meet the 
challenge that we face. I count on your best endeavours in all aspects of this process, so that we 
can achieve what I am convinced everyone in the room wants to achieve: a rules -based, fairer 
agricultural trading system that improves the living co nditions in our countries across the world.  
 
25.   This ends my introductory statement that I hope will help us to advance  our goals in 2019 . 
 
 
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