Agriculture & NAMA negotiations: searching for the landing zone

This Centad working paper takes a critical look at the Hong Kong Ministerial text on agriculture and Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA). On the basis of this analysis, the paper suggests specific and important negotiating points for developing countries.It recommends that developing Countries advocate for the following:<B>Agriculture</B>Domestic Support:a very steep reduction in subsidy levels from the bound rates in order to bring down the actual level of subsidies The G20 had proposed:that for overall trade distorting subsidies of more than US$ 60 billion the reduction should be 80 percentfor support between US$ 10 and 60 billion, the reduction should be of 75 percentsupport less than US$ 10 billion should be reduced by 70 percentnew subsidies are substantially less than the present level of the applied subsidiesa more effective disciplining of the green box subsidiesMarket Access:tariff reduction: reduction rates in the tariff reduction formula for developed countries should be such that they are able to bring down the high tariff escalation in developed countriesspecial products and special safeguard mechanism: a positive development at HK was that developing countries can use the SSM to protect themselves from cheap importsexport subsidies: export subsidies make up just a small portion of overall trade distorting subsidies for developed countries and has been pushed back from 2010 to 2013<B>Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA)</B>Tariffs:Argentina, Brazil and India proposed more than one coefficient embedded in the formula for tariff reduction which would:ensure ‘less than full reciprocity' for developing countrieseliminate the tariff peaks and tariff escalation on products of interest to developing countriesFlexibilitieswant flexibilities in NAMA whereby certain tariff lines can be left out of the tariff reduction formula, as a stand alone provision not linked to the tariff reduction formula as some developed countries wantTreatment of Unbound Tariffs:negotiate for different mark ups for different tariff lines.