RESTRICTED  
  
WT/ACC/AFG/32  
 
14 October 2013  
(13-5625)  Page: 1/3  
Working Party on the Accession of the Islamic Republic 
of Afghanistan  Original: English  
  
   ACCESSION OF AFGHANISTAN 
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS AND REPLIES1 
 The following submission, dated 9 October 2013, is being circulated at the request of the 
Delegation of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. 
 
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1 The submission in this document are the Replies by the Delegation of the Islamic Republic of 
Afghanistan to Questions from Members of the Working Pa rty following the open-ended Plurilateral meeting on 
Agriculture, chaired by the WTO Secretariat, on 25 July 2013. WT/ACC/AFG/32 
 
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  IV. POLICIES AFFECTING TRADE IN GOODS 
C. INTERNAL POLICIES AFFECT ING FOREIGN TRADE IN GOODS 
- Agricultural policies Question 1  
Question 1 in document WT/ACC/AFG/28 notes that Afghanistan is notifying the 
"Contingency Fund for Purchase of Wheat" und er "Paragraph 3:  Public stockholding for 
food security purposes" in the data provided  for its Tables on Agricultural Support and 
Export Subsidies (WT/ACC/SPEC/AFG/2), and that expenditures under this entry 
account for a significant share of Afghanis tan's support for two of the three years 
notified but have declined recently.  In resp onse to a question on how the Fund operates 
and for the reason for the decline, Afghanistan states that purchasing plans are 
developed based on an annual survey of Pr ovincial shortages and surpluses of wheat 
output.  Purchases are funded from the bu dget, stored in Strategic Grain Reserve 
facilities and then distributed as necessary  by the MAIL and the Afghanistan National 
Disaster Management Authorit y (ANDMA).  The response also noted that the decline in 
budget expenditures for this purpose was due to improved weather conditions with less 
drought and major donation of wheat from India, Kazakhstan, China and Russia to 
Afghanistan. 
- If it should occur that the surplus stocks  are not needed for distribution by either 
MAIL or ANDMA, please explain how Afghanistan disposes of its surplus government stocks? 
Answer: 
Afghanistan disposes of any surplus government stocks through: 
- selling in the local market through an open bidding process.  The Procurement Department 
of MAIL announces this and companies participate; and/or 
- selling to the World Food Programme (WFP).  MAIL sells to the WFP at international market 
prices.  WFP then distributes to vulnerab le population.  The WFP has the data and 
information about vulnerable and food insecure people in various provinces. 
Question 2 Draft Working Party Report (WT/ACC/SPEC/A FG/3/Rev.1) – Agricultural Policies:  
A Member welcomes Afghanistan's commitment to  bind agricultural export subsidies at 
zero upon accession.  In light of this commitment, this Member would appreciate 
Afghanistan consider replacing paragraph 181 of WT/ACC/SPEC/AFG/3/Rev.1 with the 
following: 
 "181. The Representative of Afghanistan agreed that, upon Afghanistan's 
accession, his country would bind its agricu ltural export subsidies at zero in its 
Schedule of Concessions and Commitments on Goods, and not maintain or apply 
any export subsidies for agricultural prod ucts.  The Working Party took note of 
these commitments." 
Answer: 
Afghanistan agrees to replace the text of paragraph 181 with the suggested text above. WT/ACC/AFG/32 
 
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  Question 3 
Paragraph 182 of WT/ACC/SPEC/AFG/3/Rev.1 advises that Afghanistan's Ministry of 
Energy and Power supplies water for ag ricultural purposes free of charge. 
- We would welcome advice from Afghanistan on whether it has considered this as a 
potential form of domestic support, and if  so, where it appears in Afghanistan's 
agricultural supporting tables.   
- We suggest this assistance might be an input subsidy for the purposes of 
Article 6.2 of the WTO Agreement on Agri culture (and therefore exempt from the 
reduction commitment and not requiring in clusion in the calculation of Current 
Total AMS).  If so, it would be included  in Afghanistan's agriculture supporting 
tables under DS:2:  Development Programmes.  
Answer: 
There is no governmental program in place to supply water to farmers. 
Water is free of charge for farmer use.  Since it is considered a public good, hence, it is vital and 
to be available for all.  The usual practice is like water comes from Rivers through intake 
structures and people use it without any associated cost.  If there are barrages and canals (secondary and tertiary) then it has to be charged because personnel and machinery involved in 
that system.  This is however not the case in Afghanistan.  In Afghanistan, the usual practice is to 
divert water from a river to unlined canals through intake structures and used by farmers free of cost. 
The Ministry of Energy and Water manages main rivers.  The Ministry allows water to be diverted 
to areas with arable land.  The Ministry does not operate any irrigation system.  Presently, there is 
no irrigation system managed by any government entities in Afghanistan.  Modern irrigation 
infrastructure is yet to be developed requiring significant investments. 
Almost all local irrigation systems are based on traditional schemes developed and built by farmers 
and operated and maintained by them according to  traditional customs and practice.  These basic 
irrigation systems are managed by the local communi ties who elect Head of Irrigation Association 
(Mirab) and Chakbashi (water master) with the resp onsibility of irrigation system operation and 
maintenance and fair distribution of water among the farmers.  Farmers pay these Mirabs and Chackbashis at the end of each harvest.  In a nutshell, the water for irrigation is not free in Afghanistan and farmers pay for it. 
Besides the fact that farmers pay for the irrigation water from rivers and canals in Afghanistan, it 
is also worth mentioning that it is not always sufficient in most areas of the country and farmers have to pay for water from deep wells and basins operated by farmers' cooperatives.  These 
cooperatives collect and distribute water to farmers. 
Given above, we do not believe that the current situation constitutes a form of domestic support.  
As such, there is no need to amend Domestic Support Table 2:  Development Programmes. 
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