. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/AG/17 
20 July 2005 
 (05-3246) 
Committee on Agriculture 
Special Session  
 
 
 
THIRTY-SECOND SPECIAL SESSION OF THE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE 
 
Report by the Chairman, Tim Groser, to the Trade Negotiations Committee  
 
 
I. STATUS OF WORK 
1. The Special Sessions of the Committee on Agriculture are conducted under the Doha 
Ministerial Declaration (TN/C/M/1) and the Decision Adopted by the General Council on 
1 August 2004 (WT/L/579).  The thirty-first Speci al Session was opened on 19 April 2005, suspended 
on that date and later concluded on 3 June.  The thirty-second formal Special Session was opened and 
concluded that same day.  The agenda for the meeting was set out in Airgram WTO/AIR/2578 of 
24 May 2005.   
2. In following what has become  normal practice, the formal Special Session was held on the 
final day of an "Agriculture Week" of intensive c onsultations on a variety of issues relating to Annex 
A of the General Council Decision of 1 August (the  Agreed Framework).  At the formal Special 
Session, I reported on progress during the Agriculture  Week and I made a separate report on work in 
the Sub-Committee on Cotton.  These reports will be  included in the Secretariat summary of the 
formal Special Session (TN/AG/R/20). 
3. During the Agriculture Week which began on 30 May, several issues were discussed in 
informal open-ended consultations.  These included: Green Box criteria; the number and threshold of 
tariff bands for a tiered formula; the type of tariff re duction in each band, including the role of a tariff 
cap; sensitive products; Special Products; and a Speci al Safeguard Mechanism.  During the week, a 
number of informal papers were circulated including:  a paper on the crisis arising from the decline in 
prices of primary commodities by Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe (Job(05)/113); a paper by Turkey that focused on market access issues (Job(05)/89); two papers from 
the G-33 on Special Products and the special safe guard mechanism (Job(05)/91 and 92); and a paper 
from the European Communities on outstanding issues in the negotiations.  In addition, at the formal 
Special Session, a group of small low-income econom ies in transition (Armenia, Georgia, the Kyrgyz 
Republic and the Republic of Moldova) introdu ced a paper which was distributed later as 
TN/AG/GEN/10 and Corr.1. 
4. Further intensive consultations with various delegations were held between 14 and 23 June. 
The objective of the consultations was to try to move forward on several key issues where progress 
was needed.  After these consultations, I prepared and issued on 27 June my Assessment as Chairman 
on the status of the agriculture negotiations (Job(05)/126).  The Assessment took account of the 
meetings and consultations held since September 2 004 and set out what, in my view, are the critical 
issues where progress is needed before the summer break and what issues could be addressed 
thereafter. 
 TN/AG/17 
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 5. Another Agriculture Week was held in the w eek starting Monday 4 July when a variety of 
issues relating to the Agreed Framework were discussed in both open-ended informal consultations and in consultations I held with  smaller groups of delegations.  The issues addressed included: the 
tariff reduction formula, including the number and thr esholds of tariff bands and the type of tariff 
reduction in each band and sensitive products; Special  Products and the special safeguard mechanism 
for developing countries; and state trading enterp rises and food aid.  There was no formal Special 
Session at the end of this week.   
II. OUTSTANDING ISSUES AND FURTHER WORK 
6. Unfortunately, the small degree of progress made  meant I was not in a position to prepare a 
preliminary draft of a "First Approximation" at the e nd of the Agriculture Week that began on 4 July.    
Members will now have to focus on a number of key issues in order to try to make progress.  So as to 
enable the negotiations in the autumn to focus on  the level of ambition, a number of elements or 
building blocks should be put in place before th e summer break.  Getting these building blocks in 
place is also needed so that delegations can move on to address the many other issues raised in the 
Agreed Framework taking into account the wide  differences between positions on many of these 
issues. 
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