The latest draft proposals for a food trade liberalisation agreement to seal the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Doha Development Round were proposed this afternoon (8 February) in Geneva.
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The proposals end years of food-focused talks and pave the way for diplomatic debate towards an overall deal, trading off concessions on food subsidies and tariffs for market openings in wider industrial goods and services.
Headline proposed cuts to food subsidies and tariff caps remain as they were in last year’s draft. However, the plans have far more detail in terms of the products that importing countries can still protect with unusually high tariffs. The proposals also include more details on the kinds of subsidies – price- and production-linked or free-standing – that must be cut and by how much.
Food talks chairman Crawford Falconer said: “The drafts are still not the final word. They put the possible areas of agreement on paper so that members can react and further revise the texts. They are drawn from WTO member governments’ positions over several months of the negotiations.”
Talks will now continue – although in a different format – with the aim of reaching a final WTO deal – covering all economic sectors – by July.
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