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Kathmandu Tuesday November 28, 2000 Mangshir 13, 2057.
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Sub-Regional workshop on Uruguay Round kicks off
Post Report
LALITPUR, Nov 27 - The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United
Nations and His Majesty’s Government of Nepal jointly organized a five-day
Sub-regional Workshop on Uruguay Round Follow-up and Multilateral Trade Negotiations in
Agriculture here today.
The workshop, as well as explaining the basic concepts of the World Trade
Organization (WTO) agreements that most directly affect agriculture, provides information
that is relevant for better understanding and assessing the implications on national
policies of the WTO agreements and their possible impacts on agricultural economies.
The workshop will discuss the Uruguay Round’s Agreement on Agriculture
extensively to examine the implementation of the disciplines affecting agriculture from
the perspective of developing countries and to identify issues of major concern to
developing countries in the next round of negotiations. Issues surrounding domestic
support measures, export subsidies, market access, role of separate and differential
treatment, safeguard measures, trade and food security will be discussed.
The Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitory Measures (SPS)
which confirms the right of the WTO to apply measures to protect human, animal and plant
life and health will be discussed. Similarly, deliberations will also be made on the
Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), which recognizes the right of WTO members
to introduce standards to prevent fraud and ensure the safety and environmental
compatibility of products imported into their territories.
Discussions will also take place on the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) particularly those aspects that have implications on
agriculture. Under this agreement, the WTO members are obliged to put in place mechanisms
to protect the intellectual property rights of firms and individuals located in member
countries. The protection of innovations in living organisms was a highly debatable issue
during the negotiating of this agreement.
Speaking at the inaugural session of the workshop, Mohan Dev Pant, Secretary
at the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Supplies, said that the workshop should include
substantial reduction in agricultural tariff protection in developed countries,
elimination of agricultural production support and agricultural export subsidies in
developed countries.
He also suggested the inclusion of application of special and differential
treatment provisions for least-developed countries with respect to tariff reduction and
the use of agricultural production and export support measures. He added that concrete
operationalization of the special assistance program for least-developed and net food
importing developing economies negatively affected by the global liberalization of
agriculture should be discussed during the workshop.
Dr Jagadish Chandra Pokhrel, member of the National Planning Commission (NPC)
said that the sub-regional workshop would deliberate on areas of further negotiation to
facilitate the implementation of the WTO agreements, problems of developing and
least-developed countries. He further said those issues of regional and sub-regional
concerns, including national economic implications of various proposals that may come up
during negotiations for international agreements should be discussed.
Yamuna Ghale, Food Rights Campaign Coordinator, Action Aid Nepal, said while
the developed countries are undermining the importance of agricultural products in the WTO
agreements, the workshop plays a vital role in shaping up negotiations on agriculture.
This will help to review the WTO agreements and explore potential problems that arise in
the implementation of the WTO regime. The follow-up is good and the FAO has done a good
job organizing the workshop in Nepal, she said.
Mukti Narayan Shrestha, Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and
Cooperatives, said since agriculture is the subsistence of the majority of the people of
this sub-region even a small change in the trade of agricultural goods brings massive
change to the lives of the marginal farmers. Likewise, food security is a very sensitive
issue. Therefore, the workshop will discuss the pros and cons of the WTO agreements on
agriculture, he added.
Winston R Rudder, FAO Representative in Nepal, Dr Purushottam Mudbhary,
workshop coordinator and Surendra Shrestha, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture
and Cooperatives also spoke on the occasion.
Around 50 participants from Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Maldives,
Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are taking part in the sub-regional workshop.
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