RESTRICTED  
  
G/AG/R/70  
 
24 May 2013  
(13-2740)  Page: 1/5  
Committee on Agriculture    
 
 SUMMARY REPORT OF THE MEETING HELD ON 26 MARCH 2013 
NOTE BY THE SECRETARIAT1 
The Committee on Agriculture held its sixty-ninth (69th) regular meeting on 26 March 2013 under 
the Chairmanship of Ms Emalene Marcus-Burnett. 
The agenda of the meeting as set out in WTO/AIR/4095 was adopted with no modifications. 1  THE REVIEW PROCESS 
1.1  Matters relevant to the implementa tion of commitments under the Reform 
Programme: article 18.6 
1.1.  The eight implementation-related issues raised as well as the responses provided and 
follow-up exchanges are compiled in section 1 of document G/AG/W/109. These relate to: 
a. Brazil's domestic support programmes (raised by the United States); 
b. Brazil's trade and industry policy (raised by Canada); 
c. Canada's dairy policies (raised by New Zealand); 
d. Costa Rica compliance with AMS commitments (raised by Canada and the United 
States); 
e. Saint-Lucia's domestic purchase requirements for poultry and pork (raised by the United 
States); 
f. Sri Lanka's milk powder tariff and compliance with WTO binding (raised by New 
Zealand); 
g. Switzerland's compliance with Article 9.1(c) of the Agreement on Agriculture (raised by 
New Zealand); 
h. Thailand's paddy pledging scheme (raised by Canada and the United States). 
1.2  Review of Notifications 
1.2.  The Chairperson informed Members that since the November 2012 meeting, the Committee 
had received 66 notifications which had been dist ributed electronically to all delegations.  
                                               
1 This document has been prepared under the Secretaria t's own responsibility and is without prejudice to 
the positions of Members or to their rights or obligations under the WTO. G/AG/R/70 
 
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  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 42 notifications in respect of which questions were raised in advance of the 
issuance of the convening airgram2 are fully reflected in sectio n 2 of document G/AG/W/109. 
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 41 notifications circulated before 13 March 2013, including 
notifications carried over from the November 20 12 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 10 notifications circulated after the issuance of the convening 
airgram on 13 March 2013: 
 Administration of Tariff and other quota Commitments (Table MA:1): 
 Switzerland (2013): G/AG/N/CHE/13/Add.15 
Imports under Tariff and other qu ota Commitments (Table MA:2): 
 Costa Rica (2012): G/AG/N/CRI/43 
 Iceland (2010, 2011): G/AG/N/ISL/31/Corr.1 
Domestic Support Commitments (Table DS:1): 
 Burkina Faso (2011): G/AG/N/BFA/9 
 Malawi (2005-2011): G/AG/N/MWI/4 
 Norway (2005-2010): G/AG/N/NOR/69/Rev.1 
 Philippines (2011): G/AG/N/PHL/42 
 Togo (1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008): G/AG/N/TGO/4 
Export Subsidy Commitments (Table ES:1): 
 Burkina Faso (2010, 2011): G/AG/N/BFA/10 
 Malawi (2008-2012): G/AG/N/MWI/5 
1.6.  These notifications would be reverted to for substantive review during the next regular 
meeting, in accordance with paragraph 9 of the working procedures. 
1.2.4  Points concerning notificati ons raised at previous meetings 
1.2.5  Counter-notifications (Article 18.7 of the Agreement on Agriculture) 
1.7.  There were no requests for the floor under the above four agenda items. 1.2.6  Deferred replies to questions raised under the review process 
1.8.  The Chairperson noted that a total of eight delegations had outstanding replies in the context 
of the review of notifications. The Chairperson st rongly advised them to submit the replies to the 
Secretariat in order to enhance the efficiency of the review process. There were no requests for 
the floor. 
1.2.7  Overdue notifications 1.9.  The Committee took note of document G/AG/GEN/86/Rev.13 dated 13 March 2013 reflecting 
the current status of Members' compliance with notification obligations. 
                                               
2 WTO/AIR/4095, Attachment Section B. 
3 WTO/AIR/4095, Attachment Section C. G/AG/R/70 
 
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  1.10.  The Chairperson highlighted  a few numbers with respect to the outstanding notifications. 
For the period 1995 to 2011: 
 11% (66) of notifications in the MA:2 series, 
 11% (61) of notifications in the MA:5 series, 
 43% (717) of notifications in the DS:1 series, 
 39% (764) of notifications in the ES:1 series, and  
 14% (65) of notifications in the ES:2 series remain outstanding. 
 
2  PART 2: OTHER MATTERS WITH IN THE PURVIEW OF THE COMMITTEE 
2.1  Implementation-related Issues and Concerns (G/AG/16 and Add.1; G/AG/22) 
2.1.  The Chairperson noted that the situation had not changed since the circulation of the 2003 
and 2006 reports to the General Council.4 
2.2.  Argentina, with the support of Australia, Br azil, Philippines and Pakistan, stated that without 
prejudice to the provisions of Article 10.1 of th e Agreement on Agriculture, the establishment of 
additional and specific disciplines on export cr edits, export 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 
Regular Committee on Agriculture. 
2.2  WTO list of net food-importing deve loping countries (NFIDCs) (G/AG/3 and 
G/AG/5/Rev.10) 
2.3.  The Chairperson recalled that within the fr amework of the Marrakesh Decision, and pursuant 
to the Decision of the Committee (G/AG/3), the Committee was required to review the list NFIDCs, 
including on the basis of specific requests from Members for inclusion into the list. The Chairperson noted that the Committee has not received any demands from Members to be added to the list 
since March 2012. Therefore, the list contained in the document G/AG/5/Rev.10 remained 
unchanged. 
2.3  Review of the List of "Significant Exporters" for the Purpose of Table ES:2 
Notification requirement (G/AG/2 AND Add.1; G/AG/W/76 AND Add.1; 
G/AG/W/82/Rev.1; G/AG/W/85; G/AG/W/99; G/AG/W/101; G/AG/W/102; RD/AG/9; RD/AG/11; RD/AG/13; RD/AG/14) 
2.4.  The Chairperson recalled that at the time of November 2012 meeting, the Committee had 
achieved some convergence on some basic principles and technical issues, as reflected in 
paragraph 2.12 of G/AG/R/69. At that time a need to conduct focussed technical discussions on outstanding issues including on product disaggregation and new products had also been noted.  
2.5.  The Chairperson also noted that, the Secretariat had updated a statistical file in response to a 
request
5 made in the November 2012 meeting and that this file was available on the Members' 
password protected website. Some Members, including the United States, Norway and Australia, 
considered that the updated data could provide us eful input for future discussions since it showed 
how the situation had evolved since the list was first established. Pakistan and India expressed concerns that the provision of data to Members structured around the existing product categories could prejudice outcomes of the discussions. Pakist an instead requested the Secretariat to update 
the export statistics with respect of G/AG/2 and non-G/AG/2 products that were earlier presented 
in one of the informal consultations in 2011. The Un ited States noted that they were open to the 
Secretariat providing the requested data and considered that it would first be necessary to have 
clarity on the how the new data would be used before initiating this work.  
                                               
4 G/AG/16/Add.1 and G/AG/22. 
5 G/AG/R/69, paragraph 2.15. G/AG/R/70 
 
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  2.6.  All intervening delegations expressed a w illingness to continue discussions on this topic. 
Pakistan, on behalf of China, India, Philippine s, and Turkey, referred to their joint submission6 of 
2012 where outstanding technical issues had been id entified. These proponents also favoured the 
need to engage in technical discussions in a working group to conduct the review of the list. Other 
Members, including Canada, Argentina, Australia, the United States and Norway, stressed the 
relevance of the list of significant exporters to th e implementation of notification requirements and 
expressed their continued interest in advancing th e work on this topic. Canada also referred to 
their submission7 of 2012 outlining the roles of Table ES:2, Article 18.5 process as well as the 
review process of the Committee to facilitate the monitoring of the export subsidy commitments undertaken in the Uruguay Round. The Philippines recalled the distinction in export subsidy commitments in terms of Members that have scheduled reduction commitments and Members that 
are required not to use such export subsidies. Au stralia reminded that on several occasions they 
had put forward suggestions on how to advance the work on this topic, including in a joint paper
8 
with the United States in September 2012. 
2.7.  Several Members agreed that it would be helpful for the Chair to take the lead in determining 
how to structure discussions going forward, includ ing through informal meetings of the Committee 
on Agriculture or through a working group focused on the issue. The Chairperson reiterated her 
call for the Committee to update a list that was almost two decades old and hoped her successor 
would soon initiate consultations with Members on the way forward on this topic. 
2.4  Notification issues (G/AG/W/107 and RD/AG/16) 2.8.  The Chairperson recalled that in 2011 and 2012 the Committee had a series of informal 
discussions on how to improve the implementation  of notification requirements. During these 
discussions Members had been encouraged to reflec t on the fundamental role that notifications 
play in the review process. Two Members, Japan and Argentina, presented papers on notification 
issues. 
2.9.  As foreseen in informal discussion in 2012, Japan put forward a paper "Work on improving 
the implementation of notifications (Artic le 12 of the Agreement on Agriculture)"
9 that reported on 
the discussions that had taken place on this topi c and possible future work. The paper identified 
areas of convergence and areas where more work was needed on (i) coverage of food stuffs, (ii) timing of notification, and (iii) net-food exporter of the specific foodstuff concerned.  
2.10.  Argentina's paper focused on work to im prove submission of notifications through the 
identification of "best practices"
10. The paper proposed that the Committee decide to update the 
Secretariat's "best practices" document, possibly with the inclusion of a section dedicated to specific proposals on changes in notification fo rmats. In addition Argentina suggested that the 
Committee could decide on a new horizontal review of these "best practices" with a view to 
enhancing compliance with notification obligations.  
2.11.  Many Members, including Canada, Australia, Norway, Republic of Korea, European Union, 
United States and Philippines, thanked Japan and Argentina for their contributions. They 
particularly appreciated Japan's confidence bu ilding approach. Members generally agreed that 
more work on enhancing timeliness and completeness of notifications would be useful and supported taking discussions on this topic forward. 
2.5  Election of the Chairman 
2.12.  The Chairman of the Council for Trade in Goods had been carrying out informal 
consultations on possible candidates for appointment to chair the subsidiary bodies. The Council 
for Trade in Goods had agreed to the election of Mr Guilherme Marquardt Bayer of Brazil as the 
new Chairperson of the Regular Committee on Agriculture. The Committee endorsed this decision by acclamation. 
                                               
6 G/AG/W/101. 
7 RD/AG/11. 
8 G/AG/W/99. 
9 G/AG/W/107. 
10 RD/AG/16. G/AG/R/70 
 
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  2.6  Other Business 
2.6.1  Secretariat Briefing on Data Systems 2.13.  The Secretariat briefed the Committee on a new database that would soon provide a 
platform for searching questions and answers discussed in the Committee since 1995. Work on 
this database would continue with a view to enhancing submission and review of agriculture 
notifications. 
2.6.2  Date of next regular meetin g and reminder of upcoming agenda 
2.14.  The Chairman proposed that the next (70
th) regular meeting of the Committee on 
Agriculture would be held on the 13-14 June 2013 and indicated that in light of the schedule leading up to the Bali Ministerial, the dates of the remaining meetings of the Committee on Agriculture in 2013 would need to be adjusted. 
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