Tanzania Report, Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania - ILEAP

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‣ Widening gap between developed country members and the developing and leastdevelopedcounterparts‣ Funding to take advantage of special and differential treatment provision‣ Under SAP, African countries removed support to the agriculture sector. Some of thesewere not taken into consideration in the process of committing to the AoA.• Domestic support: The ‘amber box’‣ Accommodates all domestic support measures considered to distort production and trade(with some exceptions)‣ 34 WTO members have commitments to reduce their trade-distorting domestic supports in theamber box Members without commitments have to keep within 5% of the value ofproduction, and in the case of developing countries the level should be within 10% on thevalue of production.• The ‘green box’‣ Under the green box, subsidy must not distort trade, or at most cause minimal distortion‣ Subsidies have to be government-funded (not by charging consumers higher prices) andmust not involve price support‣ Green box subsidies tend to be programmes that are not directed at particular products,and include direct income supports for farmers that are not related to current productionlevels or prices‣ Green box subsidies are therefore allowed without limits, provided they comply withrelevant criteria‣ They also include environmental protection and regional development programmes.• The ‘blue box’• The blue box is an exemption from the general rule that all subsidies linked toproduction must be reduced or kept within defined minimal levels‣ Blue box was introduced mainly to accommodate EU compensation payments and US deficiencypayments (through lately US no longer uses now)• African Concerns on Domestic Support‣ African issues and concerns cut across all the three boxes‣ African countries have questioned the appropriateness of the green box measures to thedeveloped countries given their level of development‣ They have expressed their inability to take full advantage of special and differential rights‣ Domestic Support: Africa concerns‣ African has called for substantial and progressive reduction in trade- and productiondistortingdomestic support measures in the developed countries‣ African countries are also interested in ensuring clarity and transparency in theimplementation of domestic supportThe ultimate goal of African countries is to guard against possible bias in the measures applicable toagricultural production that are of interest to AfricaThere is need for Appropriate domestic support measures to ensure full commitment to liberalize agricsector by developed countriesAll domestic support measures be collapsed into one box rather the current boxes – for rationality and easyimplementation and evaluationAfrican countries feel that their non-trade concerns are not adequately addressed in all boxes and cannot beadequately covered under the proposed general box hence they have called for the establishment ofdevelopment box to address these concerns4.3.4 Export Subsidies"Deliberations on WTO Pre-Cancun Sensatization Workshop" 21
• African concerns relate to the rationale for the use of export subsidies in the developed countrieswhere export infrastructures are well developed• Developing countries require export subsidies to create the necessary infrastructure for aneffective integration of small farmers into the ever-increasing dynamic world trading system• Export subsidies or export credit indirectly undermine the viability of Africanagriculture as they depresses the world prices of the affected commodities.• Apart from the three pillars of the UR- AoA, African concerns and issues include:‣ Decision on Measures Concerning the Possible Negative Effects of the ReformProgramme on Least-Developed and Net Food-Importing Developing Countries(the Marrakech Decision)‣ special and differential treatment for developing, and least-developed countries‣ non-trade concerns‣ Related agreements especially the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary andPhytosanitary Measures (SPS) and the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade(TBTs).4.3.5 Special and differential treatment• Provisions relating to SDTs in AoA include:‣ Developed countries have agreed to take into account the special needs and conditions ofdeveloping countries in implementing their commitments on market access‣ Government assistance to encourage agricultural and rural development are exempt fromdomestic support commitments‣ With regard to export subsidy, final commitments for developing countries can be higherthan for other Members‣ If they are not net exporters of the specific food-stuff, developing countries are notsubjected to the disciplines on export prohibition and restriction‣ Developing country members have the flexibility to implement reduction commitmentsover 10 years rather than six, and least-developed country Members are not required toundertake reduction commitments‣ Developed countries are required to take measures in favor of least-developed and netfood importing developing countries4.4 TRADE RELATED INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS (TRIPS)The TRIPS agreement entered into force in January 1995 with a transition period of oneyear for developed countries, five years for developing countries and 10 years for LDCswith a deadline for 2006. The Doha Declaration extended this transition period to 2016.It has three main features:• Standards: lays down minimum standards for protection of intellectual property and the arts,including recognition of preceding articles implemented by WIPO;• Enforcement: indicates procedures to be followed by patent holders to safeguard their rights; and• Dispute settlement: prior to TRIPS there was no dispute settlement mechanism for intellectualproperty rights. With URA non-conformity with TRIPS can lead to retaliatory measures in anyother trade area.The subject of TRIPS covers patents as well as biodiversity and geographical indications.The presentation focused on the issue of TRIPS and public health in terms of access toaffordable medicines.4.4.1 TRIPS AND PUBLIC HEALTH"Deliberations on WTO Pre-Cancun Sensatization Workshop" 22
Page 1: THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA(MIN
Page 4 and 5: ABBREVIATIONSWTO - World Trade Orde
Page 6 and 7: TERMS OF REFERENCE (TOR)"The overal
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Page 12 and 13: meetings remains weak. There is a p
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Tanzania Report, Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania - ILEAP

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