54 Ministers and Representatives from Members and Observers of WTO gathered in Rome to coordinate their views on the part that non-trade concerns should play in the WTO negotiations on agriculture. The meeting was organised by the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr. Franz Fischler, Mr. Tsutomu Takebe, Minister of Agriculture of Japan, Mr. Kim Dong-Tae, Minister of Agriculture from the Republic of Korea, Mr. Anil Kumarsingh Gayan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Co-operation of Mauritius, Mr. Lars Sponheim, Minister of Agriculture of Norway and by Switzerland, and attended by another 48 Ministers and representatives from Members and Observers comprising developed countries, economies in transition, custom territories and developing countries including least-developed countries, land-locked countries and small island developing states, all of whom have a keen interest in securing their systems of agriculture in the context of the multilateral trading system.

After the adoption of Doha Ministerial Declaration, the negotiations on agriculture have now entered the crucial phase of the establishment by 31 March 2003 of the modalities for further commitments on market access, domestic support and export competition. In this context, Ministers focused their discussion on policy measures and instruments to address non-trade concerns, in particular rural development, food security and protection of the environment, as well as the scope of modalities which should be designed to duly cover non-trade concerns, building on the outcome of the NTC Conferences held in Ullensvang, Norway in July 2000, in Mauritius in May 2001 and in Doha in November 2001.

Ministers underlined the diversity of situations both with respect to their priorities and production conditions, and that a one-size-fits-all approach will not be appropriate to address non-trade concerns, but shared their genuine interest in ensuring that further trade reform should be pursued in harmony with the safeguard of legitimate non-trade concerns.

On rural development, while the priorities of various countries are diverse, all the countries need to preserve or develop the economic and social environment necessary to maintain rural population. Agricultural activity plays an important role in this endeavour.

On food security, all countries have to ensure food security for their people, through a mixture of domestic production, imports and, where appropriate, public stockholding.

On environment all countries reaffirmed the importance of agriculture for issues such as conservation of biological diversity, maintenance of farmed landscapes, clean energy and protection against disasters.

Reaffirming their commitment to strengthening the multilateral agricultural trading system through the continuation of the reform process as foreseen in Article 20 of the Agreement on Agriculture and the Doha Declaration, Ministers emphasised that these non-trade concerns cannot be adequately addressed without domestic agricultural production, and that the multilateral rules need to acknowledge and secure, through a variety of instruments, the continued coexistence of various types of agriculture in both high- and low-potential areas based on each country’s specific conditions and historical and cultural background.

It was also recognised that addressing non-trade concerns calls for resources and that, for vulnerable developing countries, in particular least-developed countries, land-locked countries, small island developing states and vulnerable economies in transition, preferential market access is a key means to obtaining these resources.

List of Participants