GLOSSARY
Amber box
Domestic agricultural support measures—income
support and production subsidies — which distort production
and trade (with a few exceptions) fall into the "amber box".
These subsidies are subject to reduction commitments under the
WTO's Agreement on Agriculture.
Blue box
Domestic agricultural support measures regarded as
exceptions to the general rule that all subsidies linked to production
must be reduced or kept within defined minimal levels. Covers
payments directly linked to land size or livestock as long as
the activity being supported limits production.
Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)
The CAP is the EU's system of domestic support, export
subsidies and tariffs which was designed to support and protect
European agriculture. It is now supposed to provide landscape
amenity and environmental benefits too.
Decoupling
The severing or weakening of the link between agricultural
support and production. The purpose of decoupling is to enable
farmers to be supported in ways which do not distort production
or trade, and which are WTO-compliant.
Department for International Development (DFID)
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)
Dumping
Occurs when goods are exported, with the help of
explicit or implicit subsidies, at a price less than their market
value, generally meaning that they are exported to a given market
for less than the price at which they are sold in the home market
or third-country markets, or at less than production cost. Dumping
of Northern produced agricultural surpluses on world markets and
directly into Southern countries (for example through food aid),
depresses prices and reduces the incentive for Southern farmers
to produce and export.
G20
The G20 is a group of developing countries which
have called for substantial reductions in agricultural subsidies
of developed countries and increased market access for developing
countries' agricultural products. The G20 include: 5 from Africa
(Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe), 6 from
Asia (China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines and Thailand)
and 8 from Latin America (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Cuba,
Mexico, Paraguay and Venezuela).
G33 (also called Alliance for Strategic Products
and a Special Safeguard Mechanism)
The G33 is a group of developing countries which
has argued that any framework for agricultural modalities should
allow developing countries to protect their own agricultural sectors
through mechanisms including 'strategic products' (see below)
and a Special Safeguard Mechanism (see below). The group included:
Antigua and Barbuda; Barbados; Belize; Botswana; Cuba; Dominica;
Dominican Republic; Grenada; Guyana; Haiti; Honduras; Indonesia;
Jamaica; Kenya; Mongolia; Montserrat; Nicaragua; Nigeria; Pakistan;
Panama; the Philippines; Saint Kitts; Saint Lucia; Saint Vincent
and the Grenadines; Suriname; Tanzania; Trinidad and Tobago; Turkey;
Uganda; Venezuela; Zambia and Zimbabwe.
G90
The G90 brought together the African, Caribbean and
Pacific, LDC and Africa Union groupings. At Cancún it represented
91 developing countries, 60 of which were WTO members. Their objectives
have included protecting their preferential access to northern
markets, and resisting the introduction of the Singapore Issues.
Members include: Bangladesh; Jamaica; Botswana; China; Cuba; Egypt;
India; Indonesia; Kenya; Malaysia; Nigeria; the Philippines; Tanzania;
Venezuela; Zambia and Zimbabwe.
G110
At the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference Brazil encouraged
the G20 to band together with the G90 and in so doing to take
on board their concerns. The primary purpose of the new grouping
was halt US and EU attempts to divide developing countries so
as to secure better access to the larger developing country markets.
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
A multilateral forum for trade discussion and negotiation
aimed at encouraging trade among its members through the reduction
of trade barriers. It led to a series of trade agreements, the
first of which was in 1947. The Uruguay Round, completed
in 1994, created the World Trade Organization which superseded
the GATT in 1995.
Green box
Domestic agricultural support measures that are expected
to cause little or no trade distortion. The subsidies have to
be funded by governments but must not involve price support. Environmental
protection subsidies are included. No limits or reductions are
required by the WTO for such measures.
Least Developed Countries (LDCs)
Fifty countries that have been identified by the
UN and recognised by the WTO as 'least developed' in terms of
their low GDP per capita, their weak human assets and their high
degree of economic vulnerability.
Liberalisation (of trade)
The process of reducing tariffs and other restrictions
on international trade. Multilateral liberalisation is that which
is achieved by many countries through negotiation and cooperation.
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
At the UN General Assembly in 2000, governments committed
to achieving the following goals by 2015: eradicating extreme
poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting
gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality,
improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other
diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability and developing
a global partnership for development.
Modalities
An agreed framework upon which trade negotiations
can be based. May include targets, including numerical targets
for achieving the objectives of the negotiations as well as issues
relating to rules.
Preference erosion
Takes place when countries which enjoy preferential
market access see the value of these preferences reduced as other
countries gain enhanced market access through Most Favoured Nation
liberalisation or through other preferences. As a result, the
initial preference holders, depending upon how competitive their
export industries are without the preferences, will lose markets
for their exports.
Preferential access
Granting by developed (and some developing) countries
of access to developing countries on terms more favourable than
the Most-Favoured Nation terms agreed in the WTO. It is allowed
under Special and Differential Treatment.
Single Undertaking
Provision that requires countries to accept all the
agreements reached during a round of WTO negotiations as a single
package, rather than on a case-by-case basis. Nothing is agreed
until everything is agreed.
Sensitive products
Both developed and developing countries
my designate a number of sensitive agricultural products —
the number each government may select is to be negotiated. These
will be subject to smaller tariff reductions. Even for these products,
there has to be "substantial improvement" in market
access, which can partly be achieved by creating or expanding
tariff quotas.
Special and Differential Treatment (SDT)
The principle in the WTO that developing countries
be accorded special privileges, either exempting them from some
WTO rules or granting them preferential treatment in the application
of WTO rules. It specifically allows developed countries to offer
preferential access as an exemption from the Most Favoured Nation
principle.
Special Safeguard Mechanism
An instrument which allows countries to erect temporary
barriers to protect themselves from sudden influxes of imports
of particular products which threaten domestic production.
Special products
Developing countries will be given additional flexibility
for products that are specially important for their food security,
livelihood security and rural development. How many, how they
will be selected, and how they will be treated, is to be negotiated.
Tariff
A government-imposed tax on imports.
Tariff escalation
An increase in tariffs as a good becomes more
processed. For example, low duties on fresh tomatoes, higher duties
on canned tomatoes and higher still on tomato ketchup. Tariff
escalation protects domestic processing industries and discourages
the development of processing activity in countries where raw
materials originate.
Uruguay Round
The last round under the GATT, which began in Uruguay
in 1986 and was completed in 1994 after nearly eight years of
negotiations. Included agreements in trade-related intellectual
property rights and services for the first time, in addition to
agreements in traditional trade areas such as agriculture and
textiles and clothing. Its conclusion led to the creation of the
World Trade Organization in 1995.
World Trade Organization (WTO)
The World Trade Organization exists to ensure that
trade between nations flows as smoothly, predictably and freely
as possible. To achieve this the World Trade Organization provides
and regulates the legal framework which governs world trade. Decisions
in the World Trade Organization are typically taken by consensus
among the member countries and are ratified as international treaties.
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