Trade Policy Note Final-rev08 - Development

Different products emerge at the top of the potential SP list when the criteria are applied in
different countries, e.g. maize in Ethiopia, yams in Cote d’Ívoire, cassava in Nigeria and rice
in Bangladesh 53 .
These “macro” indicators should be supplemented by the additional factors listed below, to
address the needs of the main target group, the rural poor, including women and small
farmers.
- Geographical concentration of production and employment within the country, (for
example, it has been possible to draw a food insecurity map of India 54 ), with a focus on
particularly disadvantaged regions. This should also be examined. 55
- Household incomes and production capacity of small farmers.
- The potential that locally produced products could be displaced by substitute products,
not produced in the country concerned.
- Caloric intake: Share of product at national or regional levels.
- Expenditures: Share of income spent on a particular product at the national or regional
levels.
External factors should also be considered, including:
• Import Penetration, of identified products and directly competing products,
• Financial capacity of the country to finance food security programmes,
• Subsidization, the extent to which a product benefits from export or production
subsidies in supplying countries.
Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) would provide developing countries with a
facility comparable to those already available to “tariffied” products to deal with
sudden surges. Additional duties could be imposed on imports “triggered” by
increased import volumes or declining import prices. 56 It should be noted that the
agricultural tariff profiles of the proponents of SSM vary considerably. T he bound
tariff rates of some members of G33 well exceed 100 per cent, which provides
adequate margin at present to deal with import surges. 57
53 Ibid.
54 See Pal, Parthapratim, The Ongoing Negotiations on Agriculture: Some Observations, presentation at
the Workshop on “WTO-Related Issues for Government Officials in the SAARC Region”, The Energy
and Resources Institute (TERI), 1-3 May 2006, New Delhi, India
http://www.teriin.org/events/docs/wtopresent/partha4.ppt.
55 This discussion draws heavily from the paper by Bernal, Luisa, “Methodology for the Identification
of Special Products and Products for Eligibility Under Special Safeguard Mechanism by Developing
Countries”, ITCSD (Geneva, October 2005) http://www.ictsd.org/dlogue/2005-10-
14/Luisa%20Bernal%20Methodlogy%20paper.pdf .
56 See proposal of the G33 Proposal on SSM for developing countries, JOB(06)64, 23 March 2006,
available at: http://www.agtradepolicy.org/output/resource/G33_revised_proposal_SSM_23Mar06.pdf
57 For an analysis of the bound tariff rates of G33 countries and their ability to respond to import
surges, see Jales, Mario, “Tariff Reduction, Special Products and Special Safeguards: An Analysis of
the Agricultural Tariff Structures of G33 countries ”, ICTSD Geneva, June 2005
http://www.ictsd.org/dlogue/2005-06-16/Jales.pdf.
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