. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/AG/23 
27 July 2006 
 (06-3618 ) 
Committee on Agriculture  
Special Session  
 
 
 
NEGOTIATIONS ON AGRICULTURE 
 
Report by the Chairman, H.E. Crawfo rd Falconer, to the General Council  
 
 
1. Since the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference there have been twelve sets of informal open-
ended consultations at which all issues relating to agriculture in the Agreed Framework have been 
discussed.  In addition, there have been numer ous consultations with representative groups of 
delegations which have been used to explore in greater detail some of the issues discussed in the 
open-ended meetings.   
2. Since the beginning of the year, a total of  62 proposals have been distributed including 8 that 
were distributed as formal documents in the TN/AG/ GEN series and 54 informal documents that were 
distributed as job number documents.  In addition,  several delegations made  a number of informal 
proposals which were sometimes distributed informal ly at their request.  From the Chairman, there 
were also a number of documents including a non-ex haustive list of questions (Job(06)26), a series of 
reference papers on many of the issues in the Fr amework and the Draft Possible Modalities document. 
3. Following the distribution of the first version of the Draft Possible Modalities and its 
discussion at open-ended informal consultations held on 23 June, the document was revised and 
redistributed as a formal document (TN/AG/W/3).  Although it is clear from this document that there were considerable differences between Members on ma ny issues, it should also be clear that many 
issues are at an advanced stage, draft texts on many specific modalities and rules related issues are 
well developed.  With the right political will and input  from delegations and if decisions can be taken, 
these drafts could be translated into modalities relativ ely quickly.  There were a lot of square brackets 
numerically in that draft text, but it is clear to par ticipants that those square brackets travel in groups, 
as it were, and movement on one pair would quickl y mean movement in many others.  However, it 
was not possible for delegations to take these deci sions in the Special Session of the Committee on 
Agriculture.  
4. At the meeting of the TNC held on 1 July it w as agreed that the Chairman of the TNC would 
conduct intensive and wide-ranging c onsultations on the basis of the draft modalities texts with the 
aim of facilitating the urgent establishment of m odalities in agriculture and NAMA.  Unfortunately, 
and despite the efforts of all involved, it has not b een possible to move the negotiations forward and it 
has been proposed by the Chairman of the TNC to suspend all work in Negotiating Groups, including 
the Special Session of the Committee on Agricultu re and the Sub-Committee on Cotton and, as the 
Chairman of the TNC said on Monday, they will re main so until there are changes in entrenched 
positions and conditions exist to permit renewed progress. 
5. It is particularly important in my view that we remain conscious of the progress that has in 
fact been made-not only since July 2004 but also since the Hong Kong Ministerial.  It is effectively 
recorded in those proposed draft modalities up to the poi nt at which they were revised.  It is important 
that we make every effort to treat that as our st aging post until we are ready to move forward to 
improved convergence.  I would, a bove all, urge Members not to retreat from where we had got to up TN/AG/23 
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to that point at least. I am al so aware that further possible fl exibilities may have been discussed 
informally as between some Members themselve s since the delivery of that document. Such 
movement clearly did not prove sufficient to promote the substantive convergence that we all need.  It 
is entirely a matter for the Members concerned as to  whether or when such additional flexibility or 
movement would or could become a material part of our deliberations with in the processes of the 
Special Session itself.  Suffice it to  say that, any such further flexib ility has not been and could not be 
reflected in the draft modalities document that is on the table. 
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