Agriculture in Regional Trade Agreements Frank van Tongeren OECD Trade and Agriculture

OECD Trade & Agriculture 2 How much additional market access is provided through RTAs? How much is ‘WTO-plus’? Tariffs, ROOs, SPS/TBT Transparency

OECD Trade & Agriculture 3 More RTAs and evolving provisions

OECD Trade & Agriculture 4 Regional trade agreements: aggregates Asia-Pacific: Inter-regional: agreements between countries of different continents, Europe-Africa, Europe-Latin America, Latin America-Asia-Pacific, North America and Latin America Latin America Over 50 agreements and 158 tariff concessions examined

OECD Trade & Agriculture 5 Conforming to GATT Article XXIV Tariff and 'restrictive regulations of commerce' non tariff barrier elimination on substantially all trade(SAT) in a reasonable length of time. –SAT not well-defined, but no significant sector excluded –Reasonable length of time: 10 years for developed countries –Restrictive regulations ~~ trade barriers Liberalisation of agricultural trade in regional trade agreements~~conforming to Article XXIV

OECD Trade & Agriculture 6 Measuring liberalisation in regional trade agreements Tariff elimination measure: percentage of tariff lines 0 Exceptions to complete liberalisation –tariff lines –TRQs Non-tariff measures: going beyond WTO requirements WTO plus –SPS/TBT/Anti-dumping/SS/

OECD Trade & Agriculture 7 Tariff elimination by region and year

OECD Trade & Agriculture 8 Not all products equally fast (I)

OECD Trade & Agriculture 9 Not all products equally fast (II)

OECD Trade & Agriculture 10 Not all products equally fast (III)

OECD Trade & Agriculture 11 South-South moves faster and further

OECD Trade & Agriculture 12 Rules of Origin(ROOS): determining product eligibility wholly originating non-originating undergo substantial transformation –Change of tariff classification –Value added-regional value content Leniency in rules of Origin(ROOS) –de minimis –Cumulation (bilateral cumulation in almost all RTAs)

OECD Trade & Agriculture 13 Example of ROO requirements Japan-Thailand: A change to subheading through from any other heading provided that, where non- originating materials of heading are used each of the non-originating materials is harvested, picked or gathered in a non-Party which is a member of ASEAN.

OECD Trade & Agriculture 14 Behind the Border measures: SPS Usually re-affirm WTO SPS agreement Often go beyond WTO agreement requirements with respect to one or more requirements … but not enforceable (excluded from DSU) MOUs, Annexes and Ad-hoc agreements provide product specific details on commitments

OECD Trade & Agriculture 15 Behind the Border Measures: TBT Most RTAs do not provide a food related chapter but agreement wide rules are applied to food and agriculture –4 inter-regional, 3 Latin American and 3 Asia Pacific RTAs contain specific paragraphs for Food/agriculture, i.e Latin America-principle of national treatment of marketing arrangements US-Chile, Australia- Chile provide for mutual recognition of beef grading systems New Zealand Thailand recognize equivalence and mutual recognition in food regulations as per Apec

OECD Trade & Agriculture 16 Agricultural Subsidies Export Subsidies: 60% prohibit their use –100 % of Asia Pacific agreements and 66% of those among Latin American and between Latin America and North American countries –countervailing measures apply in case of non-compliance Domestic Support to Agriculture: –most do not limit support –emphasize the need to make support measures WTO consistent Mexico's agreements with Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Northern Triangle, Bolivia, Uruguay restrict support to producers New Zealand -China: not maintain subsidies destined to the other but not agriculture specific

OECD Trade & Agriculture 17 Taxonomy of Transparency Predictability & Enforceability Openness & Inclusiveness Information Availability Review and Appeal Tribunals Anti-corruption Review Mechanism Consultations Prior Comment Public Hearings Cooperation Publication Notification Enquiry Points Translation WHAT? WHO? HOW?

OECD Trade & Agriculture 18 Transparency is the only ‘WTO – beyond’ provision in RTAs Guidelines for transparency notifications: not binding at multilateral level, but included in many RTAs

OECD Trade & Agriculture 19Conclusions Significant tariff elimination commitments in RTAs South-South agreements make the greatest effort to eliminate tariffs Exemptions and TRQs continue to characterise tariff schedules. Especially in traditionally sensitive sectors: dairy, meat, sugar and cereals. Rules of origin appear to be quite restrictive; but unclear if this is a constraint to trade in agricultural products. Prohibition on agricultural export subsidies in over half of the agreements Little concrete progress have been made in the SPS and TBT areas Transparency provisions are promising way ahead, WTO+, WTO beyond New institutional framework of SPS joint committees –=> ongoing OECD work.

OECD Trade & Agriculture 20 OECD RTA work Linda Fulponi, with Matthew Shearer, Juliana Almeida (IADB): ‘Regional Trade agreements – treatment of agriculture’, working paper 2011 Iza Lejarraga, ‘Multilateralising regionalism – transparency’

OECD Trade & Agriculture 21 Thank you for your attention Comments and suggestions OECD Trade and Agriculture