The Uruguay Round of 1995 resulted in the founding of the WTO and the conclusion of additional specific agreements such as the Agreement on Agriculture – but that was not the final round of negotiations in this area. Members agreed to pursue a new round of negotiations after an initial transition phase, aimed at developing the Agreement further. The current round of negotiations formally began in Doha in November 2001, and remains a work in progress due to differing views among members.
The Agreement on Agriculture forms the centrepiece of WTO agriculture regulations. WTO members have committed to a series of global negotiation rounds in order to reform the Agreement.
Doha Round
The Doha Round focused on furthering liberalisation in trade while simultaneously easing the path of developing countries’ integration into the multilateral WTO system – in particular the least developed countries. Significant progress was made regarding the topics covered by the negotiations on agriculture, and the ‘modalities’ text of December 2008 provides a snapshot of the current situation. However, that is the most recent consolidated draft text and negotiations have slowed considerably since 2008. Debates on the development status of certain members are driving the resistance of other members to make agriculture concessions. At the December 2011 Ministerial Conference, participants recognised the fact that there are considerable differences in the Doha Package and that a swift conclusion to the overall negotiation package is unrealistic.
WTO members nevertheless continue their negotiations, focusing on specific aspects of the modalities text with the intent to conclude parts of the Doha Package. Negotiations in the agricultural sector, held in special sessions of the Committee on Agriculture, aim to finalise negotiation proposals at a WTO Ministerial Conference. The members have formed negotiating groups, where they coordinate common interests, positions and proposals.
WTO Ministerial Conference
The Ministerial Conference is the highest decision-making body of the WTO and provides the opportunity to further develop WTO rules. The Ministerial Conference takes place every two years. Important decisions in the field of agriculture have been adopted at Ministerial Conferences in recent years.
In Bali2013, members agreed on a ‘peace clause’ to be used as an interim solution while they negotiate a permanent agreement on public stockholding for food security purposes, and they expanded the list of General Services in the Green Box. They also adopted a decision to ensure further transparency in the administration of tariff rate quotas and to provide a mechanism for systematically unused quotas.
In December 2015, the tenth Ministerial Conference in Nairobi decided to abolish all export subsidies in the agricultural sector. The members affected were granted a five-year transitional period under certain conditions to implement this decision.
At the most recent Ministerial Conference, which took place in Buenos Aires in 2017, neither a joint ministerial declaration nor a fully comprehensive work programme could be adopted in the agricultural sector. Some members therefore see a decision on agriculture at the next Ministerial Conference as a prerequisite for decisions in other areas. The 12th Ministerial Conference, which was originally scheduled to take place in Nur-Sultan in June 2020, has been postponed twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was held in June of 2022 in the WTO headquarters. The 13th Ministerial Conference is scheduled to take place in Abu Dhabi from 26 to 29 February 2024.
Swiss position in the agriculture negotiations
As a small country, Switzerland has an interest in maintaining the WTO’s multilateral trade regulations, which are highly relevant to the national economy. Nevertheless, it is important that negotiations move forward in a balanced manner, so Switzerland is working to ensure that its interests in the agricultural negotiations (export competition and export restrictions) remain part of the discussion. Switzerland is the coordinator of the G10, a negotiating group of net agricultural importers that also includes Iceland, Israel, Japan, Lichtenstein, Mauritius, Norway, South Korea and Taiwan. G10 members share market access concerns and advocate for the consideration of non-trade concerns in agriculture, such as sustainability.
Switzerland's priorities in the Agreement on Agriculture
Switzerland has the following priorities in the three pillars of the Agreement on Agriculture:
1. Domestic support
In this pillar, Switzerland wants to maintain room for manoeuvre for current and future agricultural policy. In the medium term, the aim is to further develop agricultural policy towards support that does not distort trade (Green Box). This presupposes that no budget ceiling is introduced for the Green Box.
2. Market access
In Switzerland’s view, concessions in the area of market access can only be considered if market access is also improved in areas other than agriculture, such as industrial goods and services, or through improved protection in intellectual property, for example in the protection of geographical indications.
3. Export subsidies
Since the abolition of all export subsidies, it is of central importance for Switzerland that the remaining issues in export competition (export credits, international food aid and state trading enterprises) are disciplined equally.
Last modification 15.08.2023
Contact
Federal Office for Agriculture FOAGInternational Trade Relations
Schwarzenburgstrasse 165
3003 Bern
- Tel.
- +41 58 466 07 83