Domestic support disciplines for the 21st century: a blueprint for the WTO Twelfth Ministerial Conference (MC12)

DOMESTIC SUPPORT DISCIPLINES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: A BLUEPRINT FOR THE WTO TWELFTH MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE (MC12)

April 17, 2020
PIM Webinar

 Monday, 27 April 2020,  10:00 AM - 11:00 AM EST

 


The World Trade Organization’s Eleventh Ministerial Conference (MC11) in Buenos Aires ended without providing any clear political direction for negotiations on agricultural trade, and without taking any collective decisions on outstanding issues.

Despite the absence of concrete new outcomes on agriculture, the WTO Committee on Agriculture has been working on seven themes very intensively (domestic support, market access, export competition, cotton, export restrictions, public stockholdings, and special safeguard mechanism) and a large number of new negotiating proposals and submissions have been presented in preparation for the MC12. While it is not yet clear when and where the MC12 will take place because of the COVID-19 crisis, it is even clearer now that global coordination and collaboration is key in dealing with food insecurity.

In this context, a particular area of interest will be whether members are willing to commit to further reforms in agricultural domestic support, an issue that could be handled only in multilateral negotiations.

To analyze the effects of potential reforms, we considered several scenarios based on the current global situation and the communications on the domestic support plans submitted by countries in preparation for the upcoming WTO Ministerial Conference.  Using MIRAGRODEP, a dynamic multi-country, multi-sector general equilibrium model, we look at the impact of different scenarios related to capping and reducing trade distorting domestic support over time, and on product specific disciplines.

The twelfth Ministerial Conference of the WTO provides an opportunity to improve the world trade system through further reforms of the domestic support provisions under the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) and provides an updated framework for the future.  This webinar will highlight some of the key issues around domestic support and discuss possible scenarios of further development with focus on the potential impacts.

Presenters

  • David Laborde, Senior Research Fellow in the Markets, Trade and Institutions Division and the Theme Leader on Macroeconomics and Trade, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). At PIM, Dr. Laborde leads research on the Policy Environment for Value Chains within the program's Flagship 3: Inclusive and Efficient Value Chains.
  • Valeria Piñeiro, Senior Research Coordinator in the Markets, Trade and Institutions Division at IFPRI.

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Photo credit: Enrique Mendizabal (Flickr)