BHURBAN, Sept 10: The G-20 ministers’ conference on Saturday adopted a joint declaration, calling upon developed countries to show flexibility in their stance on agriculture issues, which was central to the Doha Development Agenda (DDA).

The Bhurban G-20 Ministerial Declaration was issued at the conclusion of a two-day meeting, attended by ministers and representatives 21 countries — Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, China, Cuba, Egypt, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

According to the declaration, the G-20 ministers reiterated the commitment to conclude the DDA negotiations in 2006 to eliminate trade-distorting policies in agriculture maintained by developed countries, and provide for substantial improvement in market access for all products.

The declaration reaffirmed the G-20’s position on the three pillars of the agriculture negotiations as contained in the New Delhi Declaration. This position was subsequently elaborated in the proposals submitted by the G-20 to the WTO. Its central elements are domestic support, export competition, market access, besides tariff capping, special and differential treatment for developing countries.

The ministers directed officials of their countries to pursue the proposals in the next phase of negotiations and continue to elaborate upon the structural aspects underlying the proposals.

They reaffirmed the commitment to achieve full modalities by the Sixth WTO Ministerial Conference, and concluded that the lack of results last July had put the DDA in a critical situation.

The ministers called for accelerating the pace of the negotiations and acknowledged that the G-20 proposals had evoked constructive responses from many members.

They called on the developed countries and the major subsidizers, in particular, to respond to the G-20 proposals in a constructive way and to commit themselves to the reform of their agricultural policies. While supporting an intensification of the negotiations, the ministers insisted that there was no alternative to a bottom-up approach as advocated by the G-20.

They stressed that only through a genuine process of negotiations involving the entire WTO membership, progress could be achieved and balanced and beneficial for all results obtained.

Acknowledging that the round was conducted on the basis of a single undertaking, the ministers cautioned against the insistence, especially by major subsidizers of the agriculture sector, on trying to condition needed changes in their trade-distorting domestic policies to concessions that would lead to unbalanced results by imposing a disproportionate and high burden on developing countries. Developing countries that did not apply such policies should not be expected to pay for the elimination of distortions that affected international trade in agricultural products, they said.

The ministers stressed the need to give priority to strengthening alliances between the G-20 and other developing country groups and said that the G-20 should continue to work together with other groups, including the G 90, and individual members with the aim of strengthening convergences and ensuring that the development dimension of the Doha work programme was achieved.

They reiterated that special products and the special safeguard mechanism were integral elements of the negotiations and welcomed the initiative of the G-33, to which the G-20 was prepared to contribute, to develop a list of indicators for the designation of special products based on the criteria of food and livelihood security and rural development needs.

The ministers noted that work in the sub-committee on cotton needed to be expedited so that early agreement could be reached on effective measures.

They stressed that tariff escalation should be eliminated to allow developing countries to diversify and increase their export revenues by adding value to their agricultural production.

They emphasized that modalities for liberalization of tropical products and products of particular importance to the diversification of production from the growing of illicit narcotic crops by the developed countries must also be arrived at by the sixth ministerial conference.

They emphasized that market access for products of export interest to developing countries should not be impeded by the use of non-tariff barriers by developed countries.

They recognised that preferences, which were important to many developing countries, were being eroded by both regional and multilateral liberalisation processes. The ministers also agreed that in accordance with the provisions of the July Framework, preference erosion should be addressed in the negotiations. To accomplish that, the development dimension in the multilateral trading system should be mainstreamed through (i) expanded market access for products which were of vital export importance to the preference beneficiaries; (ii) effective utilization of existing preferences and (iii) additional financial assistance and capacity building to address supply constraints, promote diversification and assist in adjustment and restructuring.

The ministers stressed that the concerns of the recently acceded members must be effectively addressed through specific flexibility provisions in all pillars.

They also stressed the importance of strengthening disciplines on export prohibitions and restrictions provided under Article 12.1 of the Agreement on Agriculture.

They agreed that the concerns of small, vulnerable economies must be effectively addressed as part of the work programme mandated in paragraph 35 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration without creating any new categories of developing countries.