RESTRICTED
WORLD TRADE G/AG/W/11
11October 1995
ORGANIZATION(95-3037)
Original: English Committee onAgriculture
STATEMENT MADE BYTHE REPRESENTATIVE OFEGYPT
ATTHE MEETING OFTHE COMMITTEE ON
28-29 SEPTEMBER 1995
Myintervention today comes asafollow-up tothedecision taken bytheCommittee atitsJune
meeting, wherein itagreed thattheCommittee willrevert totheMinisterial Decision inSeptember
prior tothereview foreseen fortheNovember meeting. Following theorganization ofwork agreed
bytheCommittee (document G/AG/1), theNovember meeting willmonitor actions taken within the
framework oftheDecision onNetFood-Importing countries onthebasis, interalia,ofnotifications
submitted totheCommittee andpursuant toArticle 16:2oftheAgreement.
Although Iwould liketostartwithlaunching anappeal tothedeveloped countries tosubmit
theirnotifications inaccordance withArticle 16:2induetimefortheNovember meeting, webelieve
thatitisincumbent uponustoprepare asofnowforthisreview meeting inorder togetthings moving,
asitisalways hardtomake thefirststep.
InJunemydelegation hadmade anumber ofsuggestions onhowtomake theMinisterial
Decision operational, which werecirculated asaCommittee document G/AG/W/5. Thepoint isthat,
ifweinthemeantime canwork onsome ofthem, thatwillcertainly enable ustoreach some concrete
results byNovember.
Ihaveinmind mainly thefollowing:
Thefirstpoint iswithregard tothedefinition ofnetfood-importing countries, where wehave
inourprevious statement suggested "theself-election approach". Thereason whywehavethought
ofthisproposal hasbeenononehand because ofitspracticability. Ontheother hand, because of
thetimeconstraint weareinfactworking in,which wefeelwillmake itbothdifficult andfutile to
bedragged intonegotiating asetofcriteria.
Nevertheless, wecertainly canthink ofsome proposed guidelines prepared bytheChairman
tothatpurpose. Yet,these andother possible options thatothers maypropose willnecessitate that
theChairman takematters inhandandconduct some informal meetings from nowtotheNovember
meeting onthisissue withaviewtofinalizing itbythen.
Thesecond point concerns thereviewing oftheleveloffood-aid commitments. Thatwithout
doubt hastobethoroughly undertaken atsome point intimeasmandated byparagraph 3(i)bythe
Decision. Thiswillnotbeaneasytask,thuswebelieve thatthepreparatory process forthisreview,
which isultimately going tobetaken upbytheMinisters inSingapore, hastobeinitiated atthe
November meeting. Here wewillalsohaveanumber ofideas topropose forconsideration, which
webelieve Mr.Chairman, canbestbetaken upinformally. Wewould alsoliketocallonWTO in
cooperation withrelevant organizations particularly FAO, WFP, aswellasMultilateral Financial
Institutions toprepare apaper fortheNovember meeting onthestepsrequired toimplement thedecision.
./.G/AG/W/11
Page2
Astothetypeandamountoftechnicalassistanceprovidedbyrelevantinternationalorganizations
inthisrespect, Ithink thebestwaytoproceed istoinvite those relevant international organizations,
especially those withobserver status attheCommittee, suchasFAO, WFP toreport ontheirtechnical
assistance toNFICs.
Furthermore, itwould bemostappreciative iftheDirector-General inhisconsultations with
theManaging Director oftheIMFandthePresident oftheWorld Bank intheOctober meeting in
Washington andwithin theframework ofGlobal Coherence could address theissueofNFICs andthe
relevant paragraphs ofthedecision referring totheMFIs andtheirthinking onhowtomake itoperational
andhowtheyarehandling it.Wewould certainly highly value andappreciate hisinterest inthisissue
andwemight evenexpect thathecould report backtotheCommittee bytheNovember meeting on
theoutcome ofhisconsultations inthisregard.