Sustainable Development Research in Agriculture: Gaps and Opportunities for Ireland

This paper was prepared for an Environmental Protection Agency consultation on Sustainable Development Research priorities, held in Dublin, 12 November 2003. 

The Possible Impact of China's WTO Membership on the WTO Agricultural Negotiations

Given China's impending membership of the WTO, this paper makes a first attempt to predict China's negotiating strategy in the current agricultural trade negotiations in the light of its food policy objectives, trade position and its accession offer on agriculture. China's interests with respect to market access are seen as closer to the EU position in the negotiations, while its interests regarding export subsidies, domestic supports and SPS issues are closer to the US position. Its specific negotiating objectives are unlikely to seriously threaten either US or EU interests, and China will be in a strong position to influence the final outcome by allying itself with whichever partner is most willing to accommodate its objectives.

The position of the developing countries in the WTO negotiations on agricultural trade liberalisation

This paper reviews the demands of developing countries in the new round of WTO agricultural negotiations which began in Geneva in March 2000 based on the submissions to the Special Session up to November 2000. Two issues of principle are identified. The first is the developing country demand for equality of outcomes in the negotiations, and not just equality of commitments. Because developed countries made the most use of agricultural support and protection in the past, developing countries argue that equal reduction commitments would still leave a very lop-sided playing-field in which the great bulk of support and protection would continue to be provided by the developed countries. The second issue concerns the role and content of special and differential treatment (SDT) in the current round. The paper notes the need for specific proposals under this heading, but warns that too much flexibility could encourage developing countries down a road which Europe has found leads to costly and poorly-targeted systems of support.

EPAs and the Demise of the Commodity Protocols

With the entry into force of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries at the beginning of 2008, the three commodity protocols attached, first, to the Lomé Conventions and, subsequently, the Cotonou Agreement which benefited ACP exporters of sugar, bananas and beef have been terminated or shortly will be. This paper reviews the reasons for the termination of these protocols, and investigates whether EPAs help to maintain the economic benefits they provided to ACP exporters or whether they accelerate the erosion of these benefits. We conclude that EPAs extend the benefits of the banana and beef protocols but that the ending of the sugar protocol has more ambiguous effects. Other changes separate from EPAs have also contributed to the erosion of the benefits provided by the protocols.

Has agricultural policy responded to the Rio challenge?

This paper examines recent changes in EU agricultural policy and its implementation in Ireland and asks whether the changes made encourage a more sustainable agriculture in Ireland in line with the objectives of the Rio UN Conference on the Environment and Development. It argues that the Agenda 2000 reforms of the CAP common market regimes will have only a modest environmental impact. The extension of horizontal environmental cross-compliance in determining eligibility to receive direct payments will have a potentially larger impact, but carries the danger that it may legitimise current compensatory payments as payments for environmental services provided by farmers, even though the standard of farming required is only good farming practice. The implementation of the EU's agri-environment scheme in Ireland is also evaluated, and it is argued that the focus of the scheme should be shifted more from avoiding pollution to habitat protection and creation.

The position of the developing countries in the WTO negotiations on agricultural trade liberalisation

This paper reviews the demands of developing countries in the new round of WTO agricultural negotiations which began in Geneva in March 2000 based on the submissions to the Special Session up to November 2000. Two issues of principle are identified. The first is the developing country demand for equality of outcomes in the negotiations, and not just equality of commitments. Because developed countries made the most use of agricultural support and protection in the past, developing countries argue that equal reduction commitments would still leave a very lop-sided playing-field in which the great bulk of support and protection would continue to be provided by the developed countries. The second issue concerns the role and content of special and differential treatment (SDT) in the current round. The paper notes the need for specific proposals under this heading, but warns that too much flexibility could encourage developing countries down a road which Europe has found leads to costly and poorly-targeted systems of support.

Special and Differential Treatment in the WTO Agricultural Negotiations

This paper examines the case for special and differential (S&D) treatment for developing countries within the WTO Agreement on Agriculture and the particular instruments or exemptions it should contain. The S&D treatment currently allowed to developing countries in the Agreement and the use they have made of it is first described. The range of proposals put forward by developing countries (and by development NGOs in developed countries) is summarised, and the S&D provisions in the August 2004 Framework Agreement for Establishing Modalities in Agriculture are outlined. The reasons why developing countries want special and differential treatment under the AoA are discussed. Some of the main proposals in the Development Box are then reviewed in the light of the justifications presented by its proponents. The paper concludes that the potential exists in the Framework Agreement to take a significant step towards “operationally effective and meaningful provisions” for S&D treatment. While noting this positive outcome, the important objective for developing countries of gaining a reduction in the trade-distorting support and protection by developed countries should not be forgotten. Classification-CGE model, Doha Round, agriculture, tariff preferences, domestic support.

Economic Partnership Agreements and Food Security

There has been much debate about the possible negative effects of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) for food security in ACP signatories. This paper investigates whether the commitments undertaken by ACP governments when they signed EPAs are a threat to food security. Analysis of the tariff liberalisation schedules suggests that ACP states have made use of their flexibility to exempt many food staples from liberalisation. However, the EPA provisions on other border measures are more problematic. Although EPAs were intended to create a WTO-compatible system of trade preferences between the EU and ACP states, all of the EPAs require ACP signatories to make commitments which go beyond WTO disciplines. From a food security perspective, these commitments concern tariff standstill provisions, the ban on export restrictions and export taxes, limits on the size of the remedies available under the bilateral safeguard clause, and the failure to prohibit the use of export subsidies by the EU partner. The paper recommends that disciplines which potentially might limit the policy measures which ACP governments could take to improve food security, and which go beyond WTO-compatible provisions, should be removed either through renegotiating the existing interim agreements or when establishing full EPAs. However, it also warns that an excessive focus on trade policy has distracted attention from the more important question of the domestic initiatives that ACP governments take to ensure that agriculture can play its role as an engine of growth and poverty reduction. The potential of EPAs to improve food security can only be realised by a focus on greater agricultural investment and improved institutions.Economic Partnership Agreements, ACP, EU, trade, food securityG