WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/AG/GEN/15 
6 April 2006 
 (06-1643) 
Committee on Agriculture 
Special Session Original:   English 
 
  
REVIEW AND CLARIFICATION OF THE GREEN BOX 
 
Communication by the African Group
 
 
 
1. Paragraph 16 of the Framework Agreement states:  
"Green Box criteria will be reviewed and clar ified with a view to ensuring that Green 
Box measures have no, or at most minimal, trade-distorting effects or effects on 
production.  Such a review will need to ensu re that the basic concepts, principles and 
effectiveness of the Green Box remain a nd take due account of non-trade concerns. 
The improved obligations for monitoring a nd surveillance of all new disciplines 
foreshadowed in paragraph 48 below will be particularly important with respect to the 
Green Box." 
 
2. Paragraph 5 of the Hong Kong Minister ial Declaration further reaffirms: 
"[…] Green Box criteria will be reviewed  in line with paragraph 16 of the 
Framework, inter alia , to ensure that programmes of developing country Members 
that cause not more than minimal trade-distortion are effectively covered."  
 
3. Consequently, the African Group views that the review and clarification should achieve the 
following objectives:  
(a) The first objective is to ensure that m easures notified under the Green Box comply 
with the basic criterion, that is, they have no, or at most minimal, trade-distorting effects or effects on production. The group believes that such review and clarification 
will contribute to achieving meaningful and e ffective reform of agriculture subsidies 
in the current round.  In addition, the review and clarification process should be 
complemented by appropriate monitoring a nd surveillance mechanism (as stated in 
paragraph 48 of the Framework agreement). 
(b) The review and clarification process of the Green Box should ensure that the value of 
domestic support commitments to be undertak en will not be undermined through box 
shifting of trade distorting support to the Green Box . 
(c) The introduction of the necessary elements on the Green Box criteria to reflect the 
particular circumstances of developing country Members would to some extent  
address the current imbalances in the Agreement on Agriculture. 
4. The following contribution by the African group aims at highlighting some provisions which 
the group considers particularly important in an e ffort to reflect developing country concerns in a 
revised Green Box. This submission is without prej udice of additional contributions that the African 
group could make in the future regarding the two objectives the group strives to achieve. TN/AG/GEN/15 
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  ANNEX 2 
 
DOMESTIC SUPPORT:  THE BASIS FOR EXEMPTION FROM  
THE REDUCTION COMMITMENTS 
 
2. General services 
  Policies in this category involve expend itures (or revenue foregone) in relation to 
programmes which provide services or benefits to ag riculture or the rural community.  They shall not 
involve direct payments to producers or processo rs.  Such programmes, which include but are not 
restricted to the following list, shall meet the ge neral criteria in paragraph 1 above and policy-specific 
conditions where set out below:  
(a) research, including general research, r esearch in connection with environmental 
programmes, and research programmes relating to particular products; 
 
(b) pest and disease control, including general and product-specific pest and disease 
control measures, such as early-warning systems, quarantine and eradication; 
 
(c) training services, including both gene ral and specialist training facilities; 
 
(d) extension and advisory services, includi ng the provision of means to facilitate the 
transfer of information and the results of research to producers and consumers; 
 
(e) inspection services, including general inspection services and the inspection of 
particular products for health, safety, grading or standardization purposes; 
 
(f) marketing and promotion services, including market information, advice and 
promotion relating to particular products but excluding expenditure for unspecified 
purposes that could be used by sellers to reduce their selling price or confer a direct economic benefit to purchasers; and 
 
(g) infrastructural services, including: electricity reticulation, roads and other means of 
transport, market and port facilities, wa ter supply facilities, dams and drainage 
schemes, and infrastructural works associated with environmental programmes.  In all 
cases the expenditure shall be directed to  the provision or construction of capital 
works only, and shall exclude the subsidized  provision of on-farm facilities other than 
for the reticulation of generally available public utilities.  It shall not include 
subsidies to inputs or operating costs, or preferential user charges. 
 
(h) Policies and services related to farmer settlement, land reform and the redress of 
historical land ownership structures in developing country Members. These 
services may include the provision of infrastructure, land rehabilitation, soil 
conservation and food security programme s to promote rural development and 
poverty alleviation.  
  TN/AG/GEN/15 
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  3. Public stockholding for food security purposes5 
  Expenditures (or revenue foregone) in relation to the accumulation and holding of stocks of 
products which form an integral part of a food secur ity programme identified in national legislation.  
This may include government aid to private storage of products as part of such a programme.   
 
The volume and accumulation of such stocks shall correspond to predetermined targets related solely to food security.  The process of stock accumulation and disposal shall be financially transparent.   Food purchases by the government shall be 
made at current market prices  and sales from food security st ocks shall be made at no 
less than the current domestic market price for the product and quality in question. 
  
8. Payments (made either directly or by way of government financial participation in crop 
insurance schemes) for relief from natural disasters 
 
(a) Eligibility for such payments shall ar ise only following a formal recognition by 
government authorities that a natural or like disaster (including disease outbreaks, pest infestations, nuclear accidents, and war on the territory of the Member concerned) has occurred or is occurring;  and shall be determined by a production 
loss which exceeds 30 per cent of the aver age of production in the preceding three-
year period or a three-year average based on the preceding five-year period, 
excluding the highest and the lowest entry. In the case of developing country 
Members, payments for relief from natural disasters may be provided to 
producers when the estimated production loss is less than 30 percent of the 
average of production in the preceding three-year period or a three-year average 
based on the preceding five-year period.  
 
(b) Payments made following a disaster sha ll be applied only in respect of losses of 
income, livestock (including payments in c onnection with the veterinary treatment of 
animals), land or other production factors due to the natural disaster in question. 
 
(c) Payments shall compensate for not more than the total cost of replacing such losses 
and shall not require or specify the type or quantity of future production. 
 
(d) Payments made during a disaster shall not  exceed the level required to prevent or 
alleviate further loss as defined in criterion (b) above. 
 
(e) Where a producer receives in the same year payments under this paragraph and under 
paragraph 7 (income insurance and income safety-net programmes), the total of such 
payments shall be less than 100 per cent of the producer's total loss. 
  
                                                     
 
5 For the purposes of paragraph 3 of this Annex, governmental stockholding programmes for food 
security purposes in developing countries whose opera tion is transparent and co nducted in accordance with 
officially published objective criteria or guidelines shall be considered to be in conformity with the provisions of this paragraph, including programmes under which stocks of foodstuffs for food security purposes are acquired 
and released at administered prices
, provided that the difference between  the acquisition price and the 
external reference price is accounted for in the AMS .   TN/AG/GEN/15 
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  11. Structural adjustment assistance provided through investment aids 
 
(b) The amount of such payments in any given year shall not be related to, or based on, 
the type or volume of production (including livestock units) undertaken by the producer in any year after fixed and unchanging
 base period, other than as provided 
for under criterion (e) below.  Developing country Members who have not 
previously notified the usage of this type of payment, shall not be precluded 
from establishing an appropriate base period.   
 
12. Payments under environmental programmes  
(a) Eligibility for such payments shall be determined as part of a clearly-defined 
government environmental or conservati on programme and be dependent on the 
fulfilment of specific conditions under  the government programme, including 
conditions related to produc tion methods or inputs.  
  
 (b)  The amount of payment shall be limited to the extra costs or loss of income involved 
in complying with the government programme 
   
 (c) the conditions spelt out in paragraphs 12 (a) and (b) above shall not apply to 
payments made by developing countries.  
 
13. Payments under regional assistance programmes  
(a) Eligibility for such payments shall be li mited to producers in disadvantaged regions.  
Each such region must be a clearly designated contiguous geographical area with a 
definable economic and administrative iden tity, considered as disadvantaged on the 
basis of neutral and objective criteria clearly spelt out in law or regulation and indicating that the region's difficulties arise out of more than temporary circumstances.  Developing countries will be exempt from the condition that the 
disadvantaged region be a clearly designat ed contiguous geographical area with 
a definable economic and administrative identity.  
 (b) The amount of such payments in any given year shall not be related to, or based on, 
the type or volume of production (including livestock units) undertaken by the producer in any year after the fixed and unchanging
 base period , which shall be 
notified, other than to reduce that production.  Developing countries should not be 
precluded from utilizing this kind of payment in the future in the event that no 
base period was notified.  An appropriat e base period which shall be fixed and 
unchanging shall be established and notified.  
 
(c) The amount of such payments in any given year shall not be related to, or based on, 
the prices, domestic or international, a pplying to any production undertaken in any 
year after the base period. 
 
(d) Payments shall be available only to pr oducers in eligible regions, but generally 
available to all producers within such regions. 
 
(e) Where related to production factors, paym ents shall be made at a degressive rate 
above a threshold level of the factor concerned. 
  TN/AG/GEN/15 
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  (f) The payments shall be limited to the extra costs or loss of income involved in 
undertaking agricultural production ( including livestock production ) in the 
prescribed area. 
 
 
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