RESTRICTED  
  
G/AG/R/72  
 
11 November 2013  
(13-6234)  Page: 1/6  
Committee on Agriculture    
 
SUMMARY REPORT OF THE MEETING HELD ON 26 SEPTEMBER 2013 
NOTE BY THE SECRETARIAT1 
The Committee on Agriculture held its seventy-first (71th) regular meeting on 26 September 2013 
under the Chairmanship of Mr Guilherme Marquardt Bayer. 
The agenda of the meeting as set out in WTO/AIR/4184 was adopted by the Committee.  1  THE REVIEW PROCESS 
1.1  Matters relevant to the implementa tion of commitments under the Reform 
Programme: Article 18.6 
1.1.  The fourteen implementation issues raised  as well as the responses supplied thereto and 
follow-up exchanges are compiled in paragraphs 4-15 of document G/AG/W/114. 
1.2  Review of notifications 
1.2.  Since the June 2013 meeting, the Committee had received 21 notifications. 1.2.1  Notifications in respect of which ques tions have been raised in advance of the 
issuance of the convening airgram 
1.3.  The questions raised, responses provided as well as Members' follow-up comments in 
connection with the 18 notifications in respect of which questions were raised in advance of the 
issuance of the convening airgram
2 are fully reflected in paragraphs 15-29 of 
document G/AG/W/114. 
1.2.2  Notifications subject to review in resp ect of which no questions have been raised 
in advance of the issuance of the convening airgram 
1.4.  The Committee took note of the 11 notifications circulated before 16 September 2013 
including notifications carried over from the previo us meeting, but in respect of which no questions 
had been raised by that date under the Committee's Working Procedures.3 
1.2.3  Notifications circulated or made av ailable after the issuance of the convening 
airgram 
1.5.  The Committee took note of the notification  circulated after the issuance of the convening 
airgram on 16 September 2013: corrigendum to Switzerland's Table DS:1 for 2010 
(G/AG/N/CHE/61/Corr.1) 
                                               
1 This document has been prepared under the Secret ariat's own responsibility and is without prejudice 
to the positions of Members or to their rights or obligations under the WTO. 
2 Section B of WTO/AIR/4184. 
3 See Section C of WTO/AIR/4184. G/AG/R/72 
 
- 2 - 
 
  1.2.4  Points concerning notificati ons raised at previous meetings 
1.6.  There were no requests for the floor under this agenda item. 
1.2.5  Counter-notifications (Article 18.7 of the Agreement on Agriculture) 
1.7.  There were no requests for the floor under this agenda item. 1.2.6  Deferred replies to questions raised under the Review Process 
1.8.  The Chairperson noted that fourteen delegati ons had outstanding replies in the context of the 
review of notifications. The Chairperson strongly urged them to submit the replies to the Secretariat in order to enhance the efficiency of the Review Process.  
1.2.7  Overdue notifications 
1.9.  Document G/AG/GEN/86/Rev.15 dated 13 September 2013, showing the current status of 
Members' compliance with notification obligations, was made available.  
1.10.  The Chairperson noted that the document contained new graphics and additional 
information aimed at providing a clearer image on the level of transparency attained by the 
Membership. The chairperson highlighted a few numbers from the document with respect to the outstanding notifications. For the period 1995 to 2012: 
 15% (95) of notifications in the MA:2 series, 
 14% (84) of notifications in the MA:5 series, 
 44% (805) of notifications in the DS:1 series, 
 40% (835) of notifications in the ES:1 series, and  
 15% (73) of notifications in the ES:2 series remain outstanding. 
1.11.  The United States and Switzerland welcomed the new information contained in the report 
and noted the alarming level of outstanding no tifications in some areas. They encouraged 
Members to submit their outstanding notifications.  Additionally, the United States stated that 
the United States would submit outstanding domestic support notifications to the WTO soon.  
1.12.  Under this agenda item, the United Stat es recalled that Viet Nam had not submitted its 
domestic support notifications since acceding to the WTO in 2007. The United States requested 
Viet Nam to provide information on when Viet Nam intended to submit its outstanding notifications. The details of this question and th e respective answer can be found on page 16 of 
document G/AG/W/114. 
1.13.  The Chairman also noted that in response to the request by the Committee in June 2013, 
the Secretariat had developed a documentation guide on the "Improvement of the Submission of Notifications" (G/AG/W/112) to assist Members in taking stock of the situation related to the 
submission of notifications. Argentina welcomed  the development of the documentation guide and 
highlighted its usefulness to guide Members in the preparation of work on the subject for each of 
the pillars under discussion. In response to a sugge stion from Argentina, the Chair requested that 
the Secretariat periodically update the documentation guide.  
2  OTHER MATTERS WITHIN THE PURVIEW OF THE COMMITTEE 2.1  Annual monitoring exercise on the follo w-up to the Marrakesh net food-importing 
developing countries (NFIDC) decision under Article 16.2 
2.1.  The annual monitoring exercise was undertaken on the basis, inter alia , of contributions by 
Members, including Table NF:1 notifications, as we ll as contributions by observer international 
organizations. G/AG/R/72 
 
- 3 - 
 
  2.2.  The Committee took note of the background note4 revised annually by the Secretariat.  
2.3.  Pakistan, as an NFIDC, highlighted the impo rtance of the reform process and the need to 
avoid protectionism. Pakistan also noted that food  aid should be in fully grant form and that it 
should not be a tool to dispose of the surplus commodities. Pakistan stated that there was a need for better reporting and targeting of technical an d financial assistance provided by donors and 
recipients. Finally, Pakistan noted that it woul d be useful to know whether other NFIDCs were 
taking advantage of the research of the Consultati ve Group on International Agricultural Research 
(CGIAR).  
2.4.  Argentina welcomed the background note and the addition of the reference to the Doha 
mandate. Argentina reiterated that the provision of non-concessional food aid at the 20% level was still not in line with paragraph 3 of the Marrakesh decision which stipulated that guidelines should be adopted to ensure that an increasing pr oportion of basic foodstuffs would be provided to 
LDCs and NFIDCs in fully grant form.  
2.1.1  Contributions by Members 2.5.  The Committee took note of the circulation of the following notifications in the Table NF:1 
series since the 2012 monitoring exercise
5: Norway (G/AG/N/NOR/68); Japan (G/AG/N/JPN/180) 
and the European Union  (G/AG/N/EU/15). Members were invited to comment on the detailed information contained in these Table NF:1 notifications or on recent developments in their own 
national food aid or technical assistance policies and strategies. 
2.6.  The United States noted that food aid had decreased globally. In the case of 
the United States, some monetization-type programmes had been reduced which meant that development funds used under those programmes had also decreased. The United States noted 
that movement towards commercial rates for export credit and credit guarantees might impact 
NFIDCs. With respect to resources for developm ent assistance, among support provided by the 
United States, the Millennium Challenge Corporation provided some support specifically targeted at 
improving agricultural production.  
2.1.2  Contributions by observ er international organizations 
2.7.  The Committee took note of the contributions made by: FAO in G/AG/GEN/114; and the 
Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) in G/AG/GEN/111. Argentina made 
preliminary comments on FAO's submission, noting that the indicators put together by the AMIS Secretariat had not been finalized and that they did not represent the positions of AMIS member 
states. Regarding section 3 of the document, market trends for key cereals, Argentina highlighted 
the favourable situation described in paragraph 3. 1, noting that fears expressed in recent years 
regarding the international market of key cereals had not been justified.  
2.2  Implementation-related issues 
2.8.  The Chairperson noted that the situation had not changed since the circulation of the 2003 
and 2006 reports to the General Council.
6 
2.9.  Argentina, with the support of Brazil, Para guay and Uruguay, stated that, without prejudice 
to the provisions of Article 10.1 of the Agreement on Agriculture, the establishment of additional 
and specific disciplines on export credits, ex port credit guarantees and insurance programmes 
remained an outstanding implementation issue resulting from the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture. Argentina requested that this item be retained on the agenda of the Committee on 
Agriculture. 
                                               
4 G/AG/W/42/Rev.16 dated 16 September 2013. 
5 A reminder (WTO/AIR/4034) was also circulated on 30 August 2013.  
6 G/AG/16/Add.1 and G/AG/22. G/AG/R/72 
 
- 4 - 
 
  2.3  Annual Consultation under Article 18.5 with  respect to Members' Participation in the 
Normal Growth of World Trade in Agricultur al Products within the Framework of the 
Commitments on Export Subsidies 
2.10.  The Chairperson recalled that one of the main bases for the present consultations within the 
framework of the commitments on export subsidies was the full picture notifications in the export 
subsidy area. These notifications covered not only subsidized exports and related budgetary 
outlays but also total food aid and total export volumes (i.e. Tables ES:1, ES:2 and ES:3). Members' compliance with notification obligations in the export subsidy area was crucial to enable 
the Committee to undertake such consultations.  Members were referred to G/AG/GEN/86/Rev.15 
which reflected the state-of-play of submissions in the export subsidy area. The document showed that for the implementation period 1995-2012, 835 Table ES:1 notifications and 75 Table ES:2 notifications remained outstanding. 
2.11.  The Committee took note of the revised statistical background note.
7 Various Members 
welcomed the new information contained in the background note. Canada noted that data regarding the Russian Federation had been included for the first time and that Russia's total export 
volumes showed the important role it played in the multilateral trading system. 
2.12.  Pakistan stated that although in many products the European Union and the United States 
remained among the top exporters, increasingly developing countries were emerging as important 
exporters. Pakistan stressed the importance of avoiding protectionism and limiting subsidies to 
ensure that poor and small countries would also have an adequate share of world trade. Pakistan recommended paying attention to possible trade and production distortions generated by measures taken by the top five exporters in each product category. 
2.13.  Argentina emphasized the need to continue the reform process in the framework of the 
Doha Round. In Argentina's view, protection and su bsidized production explained the high level of 
participation in world agricultural trade of certain major exporters.  
2.14.  The United States noted the strong growth in agricultural trade. In the United States view, if 
there were additional liberalization agricultural  trade would be even stronger, especially if 
countries with rapidly expanding incomes and consumption opened their markets to additional 
competition. 
2.4  Annual Report to the Council for Trade in Goods 2.15.  The Committee took note of the draft annual report to the Council for Trade in Goods (CTG). 
Members were invited to submit comments by 30 September. The draft report would be updated 
to reflect Members submissions and discussions from the September meeting of the CoA. The 
report was scheduled to be considered by the CTG at its meeting on 18 October 2013. 
2.16.  The United States, supported by Australia,  requested that the annual report also reflected 
the topics discussed during informal sessions.  
2.5  Chair Report on Informal Meeting, Includ ing Consultations on the Review of the List 
of "Significant Exporters" for the Purpose of  the Table ES:2 Notification Requirements" 
2.17.   The Chairperson reported on the informal session held on 25 September. The session 
covered three issues: (i) transparency opportuniti es on Export restrictions based on a working 
document submitted by the United States
8; (ii) Article 18.4 of the Agreement on Agriculture; and 
(iii) the review of the list of significant exporter s for the purposes of the Table ES:2 notification 
requirement. 
                                               
7 G/AG/W/32/Rev.14 dated 12 September 2013. 
8 G/AG/W/113 dated 16 September 2013. G/AG/R/72 
 
- 5 - 
 
  2.18.  On the topic of (i) "Transparency opportunities - Export restrictions", the United States 
presented its submission contained in G/AG/W /113 highlighting the importance of improving 
transparency in the application of agricultural export restrictions. The United States drew the 
attention of the Committee to the analytical work undertaken by the OECD to identify and categorize agricultural export restrictions. The United States also highlighted the discrepancy 
between the export restriction measures notified to the WTO and those included in the OECD 
dataset. A number of Members recognized the importance of enhanced transparency in the 
application of export restrictions pursuant to Article 12 of the Agreement on Agriculture and 
expressed willingness to carry out further work on this topic. Simultaneously, some Members 
expressed concerns about drawing comparisons betw een the export restriction notifications made 
to the Committee and the measures reported in the OECD data set, particularly given the legal scope of notification requirements under the Agre ement on Agriculture. The informal consultations 
on the topic could continue in the future based on Members' feedback and contributions. 
2.19.  On the topic of (ii) "Article 18.4 of the Agreement on Agriculture", Canada reported on the 
discussions conducted with a small group of interested Members on the implementation of 
Article 18.4 of the Agreement on Agriculture. Referring to a written communication that they 
circulated to Members in the form of a room document (RD/AG/18), Canada emphasized that the purpose of the exercise was not to engage in a legal interpretation of the provision, rather the 
objective was to enhance the transparency of do mestic support notifications when Members take 
recourse to Article 18.4. In the ensuing discussi ons, Members emphasized the importance of an 
enhanced understanding of the application of th e provision. A number of Members also observed 
that the practice of self-adjustment of domestic support calculations in notifications might not be 
in line with the provision of Article 18.4. Cons idering a potential overlap between the discussions 
held in the negotiating session, some Members expressed concerns on the consideration of this topic, particularly the timing of any consideration, in the regular Committee. Cautioning against 
entering into any interpretative exercise in th e regular Committee, some Members also stressed 
that the proposed discussion on Article 18.4 should not lead to Members increasing their use of this provision. Canada considered that the discussion was not yet mature enough to be conducted 
in the formal sessions of the Committee and invited interested Members to participate in the 
discussions that their delegation would be organizing in future.  
2.20.  On the topic of (iii) "the review of the li st of significant exporters for the purposes of the 
Table ES:2 notification requirement", Members we re informed on the consultations held by the 
Chairman with delegations on this topic with a view to exploring pragmatic approaches to move 
forward on this issue. Based on these consulta tions, three main issues had been identified, 
namely: (1) comparability of ES notifications; (2) identification of possible new products to be 
added to this list; and (3) potential rationale fo r product disaggregation. Most of discussions had 
focused on the issue of comparability of informatio n reported in ES:2 notifications. There had been 
convergence towards the notion that small modifications to the ES:2 notification format could 
enhance the comparability of information provided by Members on this notification. Specifically, 
adding a column in ES:2 in which all significant exporters (that is all Members having a share of more than 5% in world trade in respect of selected products) would notify total exports in a comparable basis which would address concerns raised on comparability. The Chairman informed 
the Committee of his intention to continue consultations in various formats to discuss the issues of 
product disaggregation and the possible addition of new products to the product groups listed in G/AG/2/Add.1. 
2.6  Renewal of ad hoc Observer Status to the Inter-American Institute for Agricultural 
Cooperation (IICA) 
2.21.  The Committee agreed to invite IICA to participate in its regular meetings in 2014 
regular sessions as an ad hoc  observer. G/AG/R/72 
 
- 6 - 
 
  2.7  Other Business 
2.7.1  Q&A Online Submission 
2.22.  The Chairperson stated that the Secretaria t tested the Q&A online submission function of 
the AG IMS with a pilot group. The pilot group was composed of Members that most often submit questions to the Committee on Agriculture. The first stage of the test was completed successfully 
with nearly all of the questions for the Committ ee meeting being submitted online by Members. 
The second stage of the test, the submission of responses to questions, was on-going. At the moment, only Members in the pilot group had been provided access to the Q&A online submission 
function. Members that received questions for the September meeting were invited to request 
login details from the Secretariat in order to be able to submit their responses online. Alternatively, Members were reminded that they could continue to submit their responses to the 
Secretariat as customarily done.  
2.23.  The Chairman stated that when the te sting phase had been completed successfully, the 
Secretariat would make available, upon request, login details to the whole Membership. 
2.7.2  Circulation of Questions and Responses 
2.24.  The Chairperson noted that significant advances had been made in terms of managing the 
information flow related to the work of the Commi ttee's review process. Given this progress, the 
Secretariat was also adapting their practices for managing the submission, circulation and 
compilation of questions and responses. The Chairperson stated that the AG IMS which was 
available on the WTO's public website enabled access to questions and answers after these are 
posted on the system and before the normal G/AG/W document was circulated to the Membership. To bring the circulation of these documents in- line with the new system, the Secretariat advised 
that these W documents containing Members' questions and responses should be issued as 
"unrestricted" documents. The Chairperson noted that the Secretariat would discontinue their practice of posting questions and responses on  the Members password protected website, and 
would instead ensure that advance copies of these were uploaded to the AG IMS. 
2.7.3  Date of next regular meeting 2.25.  The next regular meeting of the Committee on Agriculture, normally scheduled to be held in 
November 2013, had been moved to 29 January 2014.  On this basis the convening airgram will be 
issued on 17 January 2014.  
2.26.  The Committee also took note of the proposed Committee meetings for 2014: 14 March; 
6 June and 13 November 2014. 
__________