WORLD TRADE WT/L/178
11October 1996
ORGANIZATION(96-4172)
INTERNATIONAL DAIRY COUNCIL
Report totheSingapore Ministerial Conference
TheInternational Dairy Agreement (IDA) entered intoforce on1January 1995. Thetwomain
functions oftheAgreement are(i)themaintenance ofminimum export prices forspecific dairyproducts
listed intheAgreement, and(ii)toprovide, withtheInternational Dairy Council, aforum forexchange
ofinformation ontheworld market situation andoutlook fordairy products. Asof17September 1996,
thefollowing wereParties totheAgreement: Argentina, Bulgaria, theEuropean Communities, Japan,
NewZealand, Norway, Romania, Switzerland andUruguay. Other governments andintergovernmental
organizations arerepresented atmeetings byobservers.
TheInternational Dairy Council heldmeetings on20-21 March 1995, 17October 1995 and
17September 1996. Inaccordance withArticle IV:1oftheIDA, theCouncil reviewed atitsmeetings
thesituation andoutlook intheworld market fordairy products onthebasis ofnotes prepared bythe
Secretariat (IDA/W/1, IDA/W/7 andIDA/W/12), aswellasthequestionnaires submitted byParties.
In1995, theCouncil also: (i)adopted Rules ofProcedure (IDA/1); (ii)adopted formats for
Questionnaires 1-5(IDA/4); and(iii)issued astanding invitation totheUnited Nations Economic
Commission forEurope (ECE), FAO, OECD andUNCTAD toparticipate initsmeetings inanobserver
capacity.
AtitsOctober 1995meeting, theCouncil noted thatthelimited membership intheAgreement,
andinparticular thenon-participation ofsome major dairy exporting countries, made theoperation
oftheminimum price provisions oftheIDAuntenable. Inlightofthissituation, theCouncil decided
tosuspend theoperation oftheAnnex totheAgreement thussuspending minimum prices foralldairy
products therein until31December 1997. Noting thatthetaskoftheCommittee onCertain Milk
Products wasdirectly related totheimplementation oftheprovisions oftheAnnex, theCommittee
wasalsosuspended.
Inviewofthefactthatcertain Parties expressed doubts about thecontinued usefulness ofthe
current Agreement inlightoftheUruguay Round results, theCouncil, atitsmeeting inSeptember 1996,
invited theChairperson toundertake informal consultations onthefuture oftheAgreement.
Thereports ofthemeetings oftheInternational Dairy Council arecontained inIDA/2, IDA/5
andIDA/7.