Amb. Walker was speaking at the end of the first week of agriculture talks since the summer break. He was referring to points raised by Argentina, China and India in an unofficial paper in May, which suggests a number of issues in the December 2008 draft “modalities”, that the three say need clarifying.

He said he will continue to consult members in the coming weeks before the next meeting in early December.

(These issues are in addition to the outstanding issues more clearly marked in the December 2008 draft and accompanying papers, which Amb. Walker calls “bracketed and otherwise annotated”.)

The meetings and the chairperson's consultations also covered issues raised in a number of recent unofficial papers:

  • Cuba's call for more flexibility in export credit disciplines for least developed and net food importing developing countries

  • Costa Rica on the impact on its exports caused by other developing countries using the “special safeguard mechanism” (see jargon buster on right)

  • Ukraine's call for countries that recently joined the WTO to be able to use the special safeguard mechanism

The week began with presentations from Canada, Australia and the EU on the beginnings of what the templates — blank tables or forms for governments to use to list their final commitments and the accompanying data — might look like in domestic support, export subsidies and market access.

Members also discussed how the neutral and technical work on templates and data relates to the work on substance and “modalities.”