ICTSD produced a special daily update on the special safeguard issue which eventually triggered the collapse of the Doha negotiations. It notes that it is intended to ‘help developing countries protect farmers from import surges and price collapses by temporarily raising tariffs on affected products beyond bound ceiling rates’. However there was no agreement on the import surge triggers, the volume of total trade which could be affected and the extent of tariff increases to be allowed. Import-sensitive developing countries complained that the thresholds were too high and the remedies too low. Farm exporters argued that the proposed clause ‘could close off market opportunities’ and reduce agricultural exports which were important to their national economic development.
The WTO has also produced a guide to the issue of the special safeguard measure, highlighting the restricted nature of the areas of divergence.
WTO, July 30th 2008
http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news08_e/meet08_summary_30july_e.htm
Bridges Daily Update, Issue 8, July 28th 2008
http://ictsd.net/downloads/2008/07/daily-update-issue-8.pdf
Bridges Daily Updat,e Issue 9, July 29th 2008
http://ictsd.net/downloads/2008/07/daily-update-issue-9-template.pdf
Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest, Vol. 12, No.27, August 7th 2008
http://ictsd.net/i/news/bridgesweekly/18034/
While at a technical level the issues of contention around the special safeguard issue may well have been very limited, the issue highlights the broader concerns which developing countries have over the impact of public support programmes in OECD countries and the production effects and trade consequences of nominally non-trade-distorting and less-trade-distorting forms of support. The suggestion that the special safeguard measures debate was not the underlying cause of the breakdown but rather reluctance on the part of the USA to address cotton subsidies in an election year is indicative of these wider suspicions.