Box 1. Potential provisions in a Development Box
General
Exempt certain products from AoA commitments, using either a negative or positive list
approach. Under the positive list approach, all products would be exempt except those listed
by developing country members. This approach is used in negotiations on industrial tariffs
and services. Countries volunteer to include only those products in the Agreement they feel
ready for. Under the negative list approach, products would have to be nominated by
developing country members to be exempt from AoA commitments (it is envisaged that
these would be products important from a food security perspective). In other words, all
products are included unless a country explicitly decides to exclude one or more.
Market access
Tariff reductions should be linked to reductions in trade-distorting support to agriculture in
developed countries.
Basic food security crops should be exempt from tariff reductions or other commitments.
There should be a right to renegotiate (upward) the low tariff bindings that apply to food
security crops where those bindings are low.
Special safeguards providing automatic increases in tariffs, with a provision to impose
quantitative restrictions under specified circumstances in the event of a rapid increase in
imports or decline in prices, should be allowed.
Developing countries should be exempt from any obligation to provide any minimum market
access.
Domestic support
De minimis support ceilings for product-specific and non-product-specific support in
developing countries should be doubled to 20 per cent of the value of output.
Domestic support exemptions should be expanded, for example, by allowing subsidised
credit and other capacity building measures as exemptions when provided to low income or
resource poor farmers.
Developing countries should be allowed to offset negative product-specific support (i.e.
where farmers are taxed) against positive non-product-specific support (i.e. where farmers
are supported).
Developing countries should be permitted to use measures to increase domestic production
of staple crops for domestic consumption.
Export measures
Flexibilities for developing countries to provide export subsidies in certain circumstances,
including those that reduce the costs of marketing and those that reduce charges for export
shipments, should be continued.
Source: Drawn from Roberts et al., 2002; Ruffer et al., 2002.
The extent to which these countries have succeeded in having their concerns recognised can
be evaluating by examining the scope of S&D treatment proposed in the August 2004
Framework Agreement. The principle of S&D treatment is accepted in Para. 2: “... the
modalities to be developed will need to incorporate operationally effective and meaningful
provisions for special and differential treatment for developing country Members. Agriculture
is of critical importance to the economic development of developing country Members and