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Public
FTAA.soc/civ/57/Add.1
June 24, 2002

Original: Portuguese
Translation: FTAA Secretariat

FTAA - COMMITTEE OF GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES ON THE PARTICIPATION OF
CIVIL SOCIETY

COVER SHEET FOR OPEN INVITATION CONTRIBUTIONS


Name(s) “Comércio e Desenvolvimento no Acordo sobre Agricultura da OMC: o Brasil e a Proposta de uma Caixa de Desenvolvimento” [Trade and Development under the WTO Agreement on Agriculture: Brazil and the Proposed Development Fund] by Nelson Giordano Delgado and Renato S. Maluf
Organization(s) REBRIP Working Group on Agriculture
Country Brazil


Rio de Janeiro, 30 April 2002
Free Trade Area of the Americas Secretariat

Electronic mail:
soc@ftaa-alca.com
Republic of Panama
Fax#: 507-270-6993

In “Comércio e Desenvolvimento no Acordo sobre Agricultura da OMC: o Brasil e a Proposta de uma Caixa de Desenvolvimento,1 Nelson Giordano Delgado and Renato S. Maluf, professors of the post-graduate course on Development, Agriculture, and Society at the Universidade Federal Fluminense [Fluminense Federal University], analyze the inclusion of a “Development Fund” in the WTO Agreement on Agriculture..

The analysis is based on an assessment of recent international trade policies stemming from negotiation processes aimed at creating multilateral agreements, ranging from those arising from the Uruguay Round to the end of the GATT and the creation of the WTO, including the innovations at Doha.

The authors believe that the emphasis placed at Doha on revising the special and differential treatment given to developing and underdeveloped countries, , provides the justification for Brazil to support the proposal to create a “Development Fund” or a “Food Safety Fund” under the WTO Agreement on Agriculture since the agreement does not include policies establishing differential treatment between the developed and other countries.

Such a “fund” would serve as an instrument to rectify deleterious effects on the economy and Brazilian social development indexes, which have been adversely affected by international trade policies. Its explicit aim would be to protect and strengthen the food production capacity of developing countries; increase food safety and access to food supplies, especially for the low-income sector; reduce low-paying jobs for rural workers; protect farmers who are already engaged in supplying essential agricultural products from unfair competition; support small farmers to increase their production capacity and competitiveness; and reactto dumping as it relates to subsidized import policies in developing countries.

Some examples of the policy tools in the “Development Fund” in order to achieve these goals include, inter alia (page 11): developing countries adopting a positive list of products that can be included in the “Agricultural Agreement”; authorizing developing countries to redefine their tariff levels; providing greater flexibility for developing countries to redefine domestic support; prohibiting industrialized countries from using the “Special Safeguard Clause”; and so on.

The authors conclude their study by addressing the following questions regarding the feasibility of the above-mentioned proposals (page 20): 1. What are the existing problems and risks in Brazilian trade policy guidelines and in the country’s agricultural negotiations that fall within the scope of the WTO?; 2. Given Brazil’s situation, how relevant are the tools contained in the “Development Fund” proposal in terms of promoting development strategies that are more equitable, sustainable and geared to food safety?; 3. How does one adequately contemplate family farming as a social group, which is both directly and indirectly affected by the direction taken in Brazilian trade policy?

 


Notes

[1] Trade and Development under the WTO Agreement on Agriculture: Brazil and the Proposed Development Fund.

 
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