WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/L/929 
15 October 2010 
 (10-5328) 
  
  
 
REPORT (2010) ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE 
COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE (REGULAR SESSION)  
 
Report by the Chairperson
 
 
 
 The present report on the regular meetings of the Committee on Agriculture held in 2010 is 
submitted on the responsibility of the Chairperson, Ms . Valeria Csukasi of Uruguay, as agreed by the 
Committee at its meeting on 23 September 2010.  
_______________ 
 
 
1. The Committee on Agriculture held two regul ar meetings on 10 Ma rch and 23 September.
1  A 
further regular meeting is sc heduled for 18 November 2010. 
2. In accordance with Article 18.1 of the Agreemen t on Agriculture ("the Agreement"), at each 
of its meetings, the Committee reviewed progress in the implementation of Members' commitments.  
This Review Process was undertaken on the basis of notifications submitted by Members in the areas 
of market access, domestic support and export competiti on.  In total, 176 notifications were subject to 
review.  At each of its meetings, the Committee also reviewed the overall position with respect to 
Members' compliance with their notification ob ligations under Article 18. 2 and other relevant 
provisions of the Agreement.  Specific concerns we re raised regarding the outstanding notifications 
that a number of Members have yet to submit to the Committee.2  A document showing the current 
status of compliance with notification requirements continues to be circulated in the G/AG/GEN/86 
series. 
3. Under the Review Process, the Committee also addressed a wide range of general and specific 
matters relevant to the implementation of commi tments that were raised independently of 
notifications under the provisions of Article 18.6 of the Agreement.   
4. As part of its work to improve the timelines s and completeness of notifications and other 
information flows on trade measures, the Committee on Agriculture continued focussing on priority items: 
(a) further to the Committee's decision in Nove mber 2009, the compilations of questions 
posed by Members under the Review Process as well as written responses thereto 
were circulated as official WTO documen ts.  These were initially circulated as 
restricted documents, in line with the distribution procedures laid out in the 2002 General Council Decision.  Such documents are automatically derestricted 60 days after the date of circulation, unless requested otherwise by a Member.  In the latter 
                                                     
 
1 The summary reports of these meetings are contained in documents G/AG/R/58 and 59 (to be issued). 
2 See, for example, paragraphs 49-55 of G/AG/W/74/Rev.1 and paragraphs 57-63 of 
G/AG/W/75/Rev.4. G/L/929 
Page 2  
 
  case, the document would remain restricted fo r one additional period of 30 days after 
which it would be derestricted;
3  
(b) in response to Members' requests, the S ecretariat made publicly available on the 
WTO web site the datasets on information notified by way of Table MA:2, MA:5, DS:1 and ES:1 notifications; 
(c) in the context of technical assistance and training activities, and as provided for in the 
WTO's Biennial Technical Assistance and Training Plan 2010-2011 , the Institute for 
Training and Technical Cooperation (ITTC) in  conjunction with the Agriculture and 
Commodities Division organized an English-speaking Workshop on Agriculture Notifications in Geneva on the margins of the 59
th regular session of the Committee, 
offering specialized training to 32 capital- based government officials with direct 
responsibility in the preparation of agricu lture notifications.  A Spanish-speaking 
session will be held on the margins of the 60th regular session in November 2010.4  In 
response to Members' demands, a new Handbook on Notification Requirements under 
the Agreement on Agriculture as well as a self-training module on agriculture 
notifications were developed and ma de available on the public web site5;  and 
(d) an annotated document reflecting further c onsultations on Member s' suggestions of 
"best practices" was circulated as G/AG/W/ 73/Rev.2 and was further updated to take 
into account recent discussions. 
5. In response to Members' request at the November 2009 meeting, the Secretariat prepared a 
background note6 containing relevant statistical data in or der to facilitate the informal consultations on 
the list of "significant exporters"7 to be held in October 2010.  This background note will also be 
reviewed during the November 2010 meeting as pa rt of the annual consultations on Members' 
participation in the normal growth of world trade in  agricultural products within the framework of the 
export subsidy disciplines, pursuant to Article 18.5 of the Agreement.  
6. The follow-up to the Decision on Measures C oncerning the Possible Negative Effects of the 
Reform Programme on Least-Developed and Net Food-Importing Developing Countries (NFIDCs) 
will be monitored by the Committee at its November meeting.  As is customary, that monitoring 
exercise will be undertaken on the basis of, inter alia , Table NF:1 notifications by donor Members, 
contributions by the observer organizations, as well as a background note prepared by the Secretariat.   
7. In accordance with the Committee's Decision8, the WTO list of NFIDCs9 was reviewed at the 
March 2010 meeting of the Committee.  The Committee acknowledged receipt of a new request from 
Grenada as well as the pending request from Swazila nd for inclusion in the list.  The Chairperson 
indicated that both requests would remain pe nding until the requisite data was provided. 
                                                      
3 Paragraph 2(b) of WT/L/452 refers. 
4 A French-speaking session will be scheduled early in 2011. 
5 See the section entitled 'Resources' on the Members' Transparency Toolkit on the public web site and 
at the following address: http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e /agric_e/transparency_toolkit_e.htm  
6 G/AG/W/76 refers. 
7 G/AG/2/Add.1 refers. 
8 G/AG/3 dated 24 November 1995 refers. 
9 G/AG/5/Rev.8 refers.  G/L/929 
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  8. The Committee maintained a standing item on its agenda relating to implementation issues, 
both in the framework of its follow-up to the Decision by the Doha Ministerial Conference on 
Implementation-Related Issues and Concerns10, as well as in the framework of issues and proposals 
referred to it by the General Council. 
9. The Compendium of Documents on Implementation-Related Issues , consolidating information 
with respect to the work in the follo wing areas of implementation, was updated11: 
(a) Article 10.2 of the Agreement on Agriculture :  the development of internationally 
agreed disciplines to govern the provision of export credits, export credit guarantees or insurance programmes, taking into account  the provisions of paragraph 4 of the 
Decision on Measures Concerning the Possi ble Negative Effects of the Reform 
Programme on Least-Developed and Net Food-Importing Developing Countries 
(Marrakesh NFIDC Decision); 
(b) Examination of Possible Means of Im proving the Effectiveness the Marrakesh 
NFIDC Decision: food aid (paragraph 3(i) and (ii) of the Decision, technical and financial assistance in the context of aid programmes to improve agricultural 
productivity and infrastructure (paragraph 3( iii) of the Decision), and financing of 
normal levels of commercial imports of b asic foodstuffs (paragraphs 4 and 5 of the 
Decision);  and 
(c) Members' Addenda to their notifications submitted to the Committee on Agriculture 
(Table MA:1) in accordance with paragraph 1.1 of the Decision of the General Council in WT/L/384 regarding the administ ration of tariff rate quota regimes in a 
transparent, equitable and non-discriminatory manner. 
10. The following international intergovernmental or ganizations have regular observer status in 
the Committee:  the FAO, the IM F, the International Grains Council, the OECD, UNCTAD, the 
World Food Programme and the World Bank.  A request by the Inter-American Institute for 
Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) for ad hoc  observer status was considered by the Committee at its 
March 2010 meeting and in light of di scussions it was decided to grant ad hoc  observer status to IICA 
who would therefore be invited on a meeting-by-mee ting basis.  At present, no consensus has been 
reached as regards requests for observer status by  eleven other international intergovernmental 
organizations.
12  
11. The Committee adopted the followi ng schedule for its regular meetings in 2011:  31 March, 
23 June, 29 September and 17 November. 
 
__________  
                                                      
10  Paragraph 2 of WT/MIN(01)/17 refers. 
11  G/AG/W/70/Rev.1/Add.1 and Add.2 refer. 
12 G/AG/W/29/Rev.7, dated 23 March 2010, refers.