WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/MA/W/91 
11 October 2007 
 (07-4384) 
Negotiating Group on Market Access Original:   English 
  
 
MARKET ACCESS FOR NON-AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS 
 
Elements of NAMA Modalities that meet the Ministerial Directions
 
 
Communication from the ACP Group; the African Group; the NAMA-11 Group 
 of Developing Countries1; and Small and Vulnerable Economies 
 
  The following communication, dated 10 October 2007, is being circulated at the request of the delegation of South Africa on behalf of the  ACP Group; the African Group; the NAMA-11 Group 
of Developing Countries; and Sm all and Vulnerable Economies. 
 
_______________ 
 
 
This paper is submitted in response to the NGMA Chairman’s exhortation for written 
proposals, as a contribution towards the drafting of NAMA modalities. In this submission the 
cosponsors offer an array of positions which represen t their interests in a broad way and respect the 
letter and the spirit of the Doha Mandate, the Ju ly Framework and the Hong Kong Declaration.  
1. Ambition
 The Doha Round is about development of  developing countries, especially Least 
Developed Countries, amongst them. Centrality of ag riculture in the Doha Ministerial Declaration 
cannot be wished away. Agriculture is the unfin ished agenda of the Uruguay Round and significant 
progress in this area is critical for establishing a fair and equitable global tradin g regime and to obtain 
a balanced and development frie ndly outcome from this Round.   
1.1 Agriculture determines the ambition of th e Round. NAMA modalities have to be built around 
and lead to a result comparable to what is achievable in agriculture.  
2. Formula and Tariff Reduction Modalities  The crucial aspect of the formula or the tariff 
reduction modality is that it must re quire from developing countries “ less than full reciprocity in 
reduction commitments ”.  This creates a hierarchy in the reduction commitments  to be undertaken by 
Members. Developed country Members should offer greater reductions than developing countries. 
Amongst developing countries, the small, vulnerabl e economies are to undertake lesser reduction 
commitments.  
2.1 The reduction commitments are to be  measured from the agreed base rates2. Responding to 
the principle of less than full reciprocity, the reduc tion commitments shall be in percentage terms and 
shall be higher for developed countries than for developing countries. The reduction commitments 
when effected using Swiss formula with coefficien ts, i.e., one coefficient for developed countries and 
                                                      
1 Argentina, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Braz il, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Namibia, Philippines, 
South Africa and Tunisia.  
2 Bound rates for bound tariff lines or (applied tariff as on 14 November 2001 + mark up) for unbound 
tariff lines. TN/MA/W/91 
Page 2  
 
  higher coefficients for developing countries shall fully comply with the principle of “ less than full 
reciprocity in reduction commitments ”.  
2.2 Target binding averages have been proposed for certain other devel oping country members, 
such as the small, vulnerable econom ies and the paragraph 6 countries. 
2.3 Following from the above, proposals that seek to impose reduction commitments on 
developing countries, including the SVEs, which are higher than that for developed countries, cannot 
be accepted. 
3. Flexibilities for Developing Members
  Flexibility is a crucial element addressing the 
development dimension of this R ound.  Developing countries have de monstrated thei r diverse need 
for flexibilities, for both tariff lines and trade covered.  Some have suggested that there should not be 
limits to the trade covered as is th e case in agriculture; some have s ubmitted that there is the need for 
additional flexibilities to preserve the common extern al tariff in customs unions; some to address 
social economic and labour concerns ; and others to address concerns arising from a large number of 
low applied and unbound tariffs. The final outcome of this development round must capture this 
diversity in development needs by making available the flexibility provisions to the appropriate and 
adequate extent. 
4. Product Coverage    The NAMA formula and modalities shall apply to a common list of 
non-agricultural tariff lines of all Members without exceptions. The cosponsors reject ‘second best’ 
options that seek to exempt a few countries from adhering to this requirement.  
5. Mark-up for Unbounds   In view of the fact that binding of tariff lines is a concession in 
itself, the cosponsors agree that a mark-up of 30  for the presently unbound tariffs is appropriate. 
6. Implementation Period   The mandate provides that the implementation period shall be 
longer for developing countries, to address their need  to manage the impact of tariff reduction on 
domestic industry. The implementation period shall be 5 years for developed countries and at least 
10 years for developing countries.  For SVEs long er implementation period shall be considered. 
Similarly, for the RAMs additional time to meet their tariff reduction oblig ations is appropriate. 
7. Supplementary Modalities  Voluntary sectoral negotiations and request-offer process 
covering all negotiating areas can be important to address the diverse needs and negotiating objectives 
of various Members. Adequate time for suppleme ntary modalities has to be factored into the 
timelines.  Although the sectoral negotiations are non-mandatory in respect of participation, the 
process needs to be sensitive to th e significant adverse impact that these negotiations could have on 
some sectors in non-signatory preference-dependent countries. 
8. Small, Vulnerable Economies (SVEs)   The recognized economic vul nerability of this group 
of developing countries demands that the modaliti es finally agreed for these Members, impose lower 
reduction obligations on them than those on de veloped and other developing country Members.  In this 
regard, the cosponsors support the small, vulnera ble economies approach for a banded solution 
outside the formula . 
9. Least Developed Countries (LDCs)   Cosponsors of this paper reiterate the decision that the 
LDCs may undertake tariff binding commitments that they are comfortable with and that meet their 
developmental objectives. They also recognize the im portance of improvement in their market access. 
Accordingly, time bound, full and faithful implementation of the Decision on Measures in Favour of 
Least-Developed Countries  contained in Annex F - Proposal 36 of the Hong Kong Ministerial 
Declaration (the "Decision") with information on the schedule for providing duty free and quota free 
treatment must be provided. Simplification and tr ansparency of applicable rules of origin and  TN/MA/W/91 
 Page 3 
 
 
  commitments on capacity building and technical assi stance are crucial for the LDCs and must be 
included in the modality package. 
10. ‘Paragraph 6’  The cosponsors reaffirm the relationship between the scope of binding 
coverage and the overall average bound tariff rate.  They support the proposal of the ‘Paragraph 6’ 
countries that they be required to increase their bi nding coverage to up to 70%  at an overall average 
tariff of 28.5%. 
11. Recently acceded Members   Considering the extensive commitments undertaken by the 
RAMs during the accession process, it is appropriate that they be provided more flexible treatment in 
the modalities applicable to them.  
12. Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs)   We reiterate that the mandate on NTBs is to remove them, 
particularly those that affect the export interest of  developing countries. All those proposals that have 
gathered support and consensus should be mentione d in the revised text for further discussions.  
12.1 Immediate initiation of text based negotiations on the “ Proposal on Procedures for the 
Facilitation of Solutions to NTBs”  contained in document TN/MA/W/88 is necessary to ensure 
inclusion of the procedures in the final Doha Pack age. The text based negotia tions should retain the 
structure and character of the above mentioned proposal in its entirety.   
13. Preference Erosion  Recognizing that the core issue in this element is to ensure that 
preference dependant industries in certain long term preference receiving countries retain their 
competitiveness after the MFN liberalization of tari ffs, and that the main concern is to have 
preference erosion effectively managed to smooth the transition, the co-sponsors stress on a longer 
implementation period of at least 10 years for the reductions affecting such tariff lines.  The 
cosponsors further call for the inclusion of co mmitments from the preference giving developed 
countries to simplify the applicable rules of origin  and provide aid, including technical assistance. 
There must be a comprehensive package of measure s to address the concerns expressed in addition to 
longer implementation periods.  
14. Non-Agricultural Environmental Goods   The co-sponsors reiterate that it is for the CTE-SS 
to decide on the mandate under Paragraph 31(iii) of th e DMD in its entirety, i.e., tariffs and non tariff 
issues relating to the trade in agricultural and non- agricultural environmental goods and services. In 
case that negotiating body requires any assistance or support from the NGMA the same could be 
provided by the NGMA, in accordance with the terms of such request as and when made. 
__________