The Chair of the WTO's agriculture negotiations, Ambassador Alparslan Acarsoy of Türkiye, told trade officials that “fresh thinking” was needed to break the persistent deadlock in the talks.
At the first meeting of the agriculture negotiating body since the 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13), he also urged WTO members to acknowledge the work undertaken so far.
Although WTO members shared a sense of disappointment at the inconclusive outcome of the agriculture negotiations at MC13, the absence of results did not mean that progress had not occurred, he said.
“Throwing away past efforts and restarting from scratch would not be productive,” he told delegates.
At the meeting, Brazil presented its views on how to revive the agriculture talks, following the tabling of its draft decision for adoption by the General Council in July.
Brazil’s proposal envisages talks proceeding across all agriculture negotiation topics in parallel, and is based on the Abu Dhabi Draft Text on Agriculture- which in turn is a revised version of the Chair's text circulated before MC13.
In Abu Dhabi, WTO members were unable to agree on whether to conclude a standalone agreement that would establish a permanent solution to the challenges some developing economies face when buying food at government-set prices for public stocks, or whether this topic should instead be addressed alongside other unresolved negotiating topics in the run-up to MC14.
In the ensuing discussions, several negotiators welcomed Brazil’s initiative in tabling a concrete proposal for discussion — with several of them urging their counterparts to build on the progress that has been made to date. Some of them supported Brazil’s proposal for a General Council decision in July, while others argued that negotiators ought to begin talks immediately on the substance of the unresolved negotiating issues.
Some shared Brazil’s view that a comprehensive approach was needed in order to address all members’ concerns. However, others took the view that the negotiations should be unlocked by focusing on issues that WTO members see as top priorities, such as the purchase of food at minimum prices for public stocks.
