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AGRICULTURE: NEGOTIATIONS

The Cancún draft ‘frameworks’

With the negotiations deadlocked on “modalities” in 2003, members drafted a number of proposals for the 11–14 September 2003 Cancún Ministerial Conference. These took the form of draft “frameworks” of main points of the modalities. The first was the result of compromise negotiations by the US and EU, circulated on 13 August 2003 as an unofficial document (number JOB(03)/157). Other groups of members proposed alternatives, following the same structure, many re-issued as official documents for the Ministerial Conference.

Comments on all of these draft “frameworks” led to an annex, still following the same structure, in the draft ministerial declaration submitted to the Cancún conference by General Council chairperson Carlos Pérez del Castillo. Further discussions in Cancún led to a revised annex in the new draft declaration compiled by the conference chairperson, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez, and circulated on 13 September (the “Derbez text”).

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Members’ proposed ‘frameworks’ 

Unrestricted documents listed here are downloadable in MS Word format

  • US-EU: JOB(03)/157 (restricted), 13 August 2003
  • G–20 or G–22 (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Venezuela): JOB(03)/162 (restricted), 20 August 2003;
    > re-circulated as WT/MIN(03)/W/6, 4 September 2003; also Add.1, 9 September 2003, and Add.2, 30 September 2003
  • Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama: JOB(03)/164 (restricted), 20 August 2003;
    > re-circulated as WT/MIN(03)/W/10, 5 September 2003
  • Japan: JOB(03)/165 (restricted), 20 August 2003
  • Bulgaria, Chinese Taipei, Iceland, Rep of Korea, Liechtenstein, Switzerland: JOB(03)/167 (restricted), 20 August 2003
  • Norway: JOB(03)/167 (restricted), 20 August 2003
  • Kenya: on special and differential treatment, JOB(03)/175 (restricted), 25 August 2003

During Cancún, the following members proposed amendments to the framework in the pre-Cancún draft:

  • Caricom:
    > WT/MIN(03)/W/11, 8 September 2003
  • Bulgaria, Chinese Taipei, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Korea, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland:
    > WT/MIN(03)/W/12, 10 September 2003
  • Norway:
    > WT/MIN(03)/W/15, 12 September 2003
  • Israel:
    > WT/MIN(03)/W/16, 12 September 2003
  • African Union, African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) countries, least-developed countries:
    > WT/MIN(03)/W/17, 12 September 2003

 

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Chairs’ drafts 

  • Proposed “Framework modalities” in draft Cancún ministerial declarations, see paragraph 4 and Annex A of these texts:
    > The “Derbez Text” and its Annex A, circulated in Cancún, 13 September 2003
    > The pre-Cancún draft and its Annex A, circulated in Geneva, 31 August 2003

  

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See also 

> The “July 2004 package” and the 1 August 2004 agreed framework
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