WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/AG/NG/W/50
6 October 2000
(00-4107)
Committee on Agriculture
Special SessionOriginal:  English
THIRD SPECIAL SESSION OF THE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE
28-29 SEPTEMBER 2000
Statement by Norway
Comments on negotiating proposal s submitted by Members (Item 2.A)
European Communities: The Blue Box and other support measures to agriculture
(G/AG/NG/W/17) and Food Quality (G/AG/NG/W/18)
Norway welcomes the paper by the European Communities regarding the Blue Box.  We
support the views expressed by the EC to the effect that the Blue Box direct payments have proved to
be very useful tools when reforming domestic agricultural policy, in the direction set out in the
Agreement on Agriculture.  We would like to recall that the Blue Box is an integrated part of the
outcome of the Uruguay Round and of a transitional nature.
In the case of Norway, Blue Box direct payments linked to factors of production have, in the
past decade, constituted an important element when reducing support linked to prices and output.  For
instance the area payment which contains environmental and cultural landscape requirements has
made it possible to maintain marginal agricultural areas in a country where only 3 per cent of the area
is cultivated land.  Completely decoupled measures would not have made this possible, and this
illustrates that Green Box measures only cannot safeguard all NTCs in our case.  We strongly believethat retaining the Blue Box measures will facilitate the future reform process.
Furthermore, we have noted with interest the latest OECD analysis with regard to the impact
of various support measures.  This report clearly demonstrates that thorough analyses are needed to
assess impacts of various types of measures on trad e and non-trade issues, and that one should avoid
hasty conclusions as to their trade-distorting effect.
In a country with extremely difficult productio n conditions, such as Norway, a combination of
policy measures are needed to ensure a viable domestic agricultural sector with domestic production
required to properly address NTCs.  Norway therefore supports the EC conclusions that the concept ofthe Blue Box must be retained.
We welcome the proposal from the European Communities regarding Food Quality and food
specificity aspects.  Norway considers this to be  an important issue and we look forward to future
discussions in this regard.
European Communities: Export Competition (G/AG/NG/W/34)
Norway welcomes the EC proposal on Export competition.  We agree that all forms of
support to exports of agricultural and food products should be treated on a common footing to create a
level playing field.  We also agree that current WTO provisions may not be sufficient to prevent abuseG/AG/NG/W/50
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of food aid.  Further reductions in export subsidies and other export measures should be subject to
negotiations and must be seen in connection with the over-all outcome of the negotiations.
Cairns Group: Domestic Support (G/AG/NG/W/35)
I would like to make a few brief comments on the proposal on domestic support submitted by
the Cairns group.  According to the mandate for the negotiations, Article 20 of the Agreement on
Agriculture, the long-term objective is substantial progressive reductions in support and protection,
while taking into account, inter alia , non-trade concerns and special and differential treatment.
We welcome the proposals put forward by the Cairns Group on how to enable developing
countries to address their legitimate and varied needs, including agricultural and rural development,
food security, and subsistence and small-scale farming.  We are encouraged to note that the Cairns
Group now recognises the existence of such non-trade concerns at least in the case of developing
countries.  We are looking forward to a further discus sion in this group at a later stage as to how to
ensure that the developing countries have adequate flexibility to pursue their development needs.
However, in the continuation of the policy reform process, all Members, both developing and
developed, must be given sufficient flexibility in national policy design to properly address non-trade
concerns through an appropriate combination of policy measures.
In our view, the proposal of eliminating all forms of trade and production-distorting support
goes far beyond Article 20 which talks about further reductions and not elimination.  In the reform
process, we have to recognise that production conditions are varying considerably among WTO
Members .  The different levels of support and protection reflect the heterogeneity and diversity of
country situations.  As far as we can see, the proposal ignores important constraints such as thedifficult production conditions that many high-cost low-potential countries are facing.  It also fails to
recognise the narrow product range countries, inter alia  for climatic reasons, are relying on.  These
and other aspects relating to non-trade concerns are not addressed by the Cairns Group proposal.  We
have to devise ways in the next phase of the negotiations in which the interests of all Members are
suitably addressed.  As highlighted by the European Communities all aspects of Article 20 should
form an integrated part of the negotiations.
Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras , Kenya, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka,
Uganda and Zimbabwe:  Market access (G/AG/NG/W/37)
Norway would like to welcome the paper on market access submitted by a number of
developing countries, and give some preliminary comments.
In our view, Mr. Chairman, the Uruguay Round has led to some positive results in terms of
improved market access also for developing countries, as well as increased disciplines on trade-
distorting policies, resulting in a more predictable trading system.  As pointed out in the paper,
however, developing countries are still encountering a number of difficulties in the area of marketaccess.  Further improvements in market access for developing countries is thus an important issue
that should be properly addressed in the continuation of the reform process.
Moreover, we also need to address developing countries' need for financial and technical
assistance to enable developing countries to mitigate possible negative effects resulting from thereform process and overcome supply side constraints thereby taking advantage of opportunities that
are offered by more open markets.G/AG/NG/W/50
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As regards the recommendations put forward in the developing countries' paper, these deserve
careful scrutiny.  We would thus like to revert with further comments at the next Special Session after
having studied the paper in more detail.
Proposal regarding preparation of documents from the Secretariat to the Special Session
(Item 2.B)
We would like to reiterate our proposal made at the last Special Session in June, that the
Secretariat should be asked to prepare a factual paper identifying other international agreements and
declarations that have relevance for the agricultural negotiations
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