World Trade Organization: The Hong Kong Ministerial

The sixth WTO Ministerial Conference was held in Hong Kong, China, December 13-18, 2005. After six days of negotiation, ministers from the WTO’s 149 Member governments reached a deal to put the Doha Round trade talks “back on track.” The Hong Kong Ministerial Conference did establish 2013 as the end-date for eliminating agricultural export subsidies, contingent “upon the completion of the modalities.”

The disciplines on export credits, export credit guarantees or insurance programs, exporting state trading enterprises and food aid will be completed by April 30, 2006 as part of the modalities. Domestic farm subsidies are to be classified in three bands for the purposes of reductions in the Final Bound Total AMS (Aggregate Measure of Support). The Member with the highest level of permitted subsidy (the EU) will be in the top band. The Members with the second and third highest levels of support (the US and Japan) will be in the middle band and all other Members would fall in the bottom band.

The final Declaration allows developing countries to self-designate an appropriate number of tariff lines as Special Products (SPs) guided by indicators based on the criteria of food security, livelihood security and rural development. They would also have recourse to a Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) to protect farmers from a surge in imports or a collapse in import prices.

Members had been prepared to make concrete, but conditional, proposals on the number of sensitive products. But proposals ranged from as little as 1% to as much as 15% of tariff lines. It was also proposed (but not discussed with Members as a whole) that a developing country Member should have the right to designate at least 20% of its agricultural tariff lines as Special Products. In 2004, 43 WTO members had a combined total of 1,425 tariff quotas in their commitments.

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia’s poultry meat production (mainly broiler meat) is forecast to reach 490,000 metric tons (MT) in 2006, an increase of two percent compared to the expected 2005 level of 480,000 metric tons. According to the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) and poultry farmers, the expected increase is based on the continued expansion of existing producers, and the expected operation of newly licensed poultry farms. Poultry meat imports for 2006 are expected to reach about 440,000 MT, a two percent increase compared to the current year.

According to local importers, Brazilian frozen broiler meat exports this year are expected to increase by at least 10 percent compared to the 2004 export level of 333,223 MT. The Kingdom's ban on Chinese poultry and the strength of the Euro compared to the U.S. dollar are two factors. France, the second largest broiler meat exporter to the Kingdom, is expected to lose significant market share to Brazil this year compared to last year. In 2004, France exported 82,981 metric tons of frozen broiler meat to the Kingdom.

The C&F prices of Brazilian frozen poultry meat exports to the Kingdom have begun to decrease from high of $1,490 per MT in November 2005 (highest price ever reported) to $1,450 MT in December 2005, a decrease of about 3 percent. A further $30 to $50 decease in Brazilian broiler meat prices is expected in January/February 2006 due to higher stocks of frozen meat available in the Saudi market, contributing to a lower demand and increased offers by Brazilian exporters to supply at more competitive rates. Major Saudi broiler meat importers claim that Brazilian exporters are currently holding higher than normal stocks, which they want to reduce, due to some difficulties they are facing in exporting to Iraq and Iran.
Source: USDA/FAS

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Source: USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service - 10th January 2006