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1 1 (August 19, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/goveeju0001 and id is 1 raw text is: ~nfofrnnQ he k~j I U ~% e 1~14 9 August 19,2021 Agriculture in the WTO's 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) The United States is one of the world's largest agricultural trading countries and has a major stake in negotiations on trade rules and disciplines. Congress continues to seekto influence and monitor ongoing trade negotiations involving agricultural trade, including multilateral negotiations within the World Trade Organization (W TO), to ensure that U.S. agricultural, food industry, and consumer interests are reflected in their outcomes. Discussions on agricultural trade are expected to take place at the W TO 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) scheduled forlate November2021. Previous multilateral talks involving agricultural trade often have beenhighly contentious andhampered by a lackof consensus andby divergent agendaand reformpriorities. Importance of U.S. Agricultural Trade U.S. food and agricultural exports totaled $149.7 billion and U.S. imports totaled$146.3billion in 2020, resulting in a trade surplus of $3.4 billion, according to data fromthe U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). In recent years, the United States has seen its once sizable agricultural trade surplus-whichreached $40 billion in 2011-shrinkto below $10 billion in 2018 and 2020 and post a deficit in 2019. This trend reflects both rising U.S. imports and slower growth in U.S. exports (Figure 1). Some officials and industry representatives contend that policies by some U.S. trading partners may be impeding U.S. food and agricultural exports. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) in its annual National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers highlights a range of such tariff and nontariff concerns. Multilateral Talks on Agricultural Trade For many years, WTO members havebeen conducting multilateral negotiations to reformagricultural trade. These talks started under the mandate in the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) adopted during the Uruguay Round of W TO negotiations in 1995 and later continued as part of the Doha Round initiated in 2001. These negotiations continued in the 2013 and 2015 minis terial conferences. Agreed-on reforms included a decision to eliminate agricultural export subsidies. The United States expects to continue these and other discussions at the MC12. Certain unfulfilled Doha mandates involving agricultural trade continue to be a sticking point for some WTO members that call for more ambitious reforms to domestic farmsupport programs and subsidies, among otherpolicies. As a WTO member, the United States has committed to abide by W TO rules and disciplines that govern domestic farmpolicy as defined in the AoA and agreed to by the United States. In advance of the MC12, the United States has called for increas ed transparency in domes tic s upport notifications (JOB/AG/181). The United States, with other W TO members (including Canada, the European Union (EU), and Japan), submitted a July 2021 proposal for a Ministerial decision calling for enhanced transparency obligations on export restrictions and prohibitions, along with other reporting commitments on market access and domestic support (JOB/GC/204/Rev.6; JOB/CTG/14/Rev.6). The United States sees enhanced transparency and a streamlined notification process on export competition (described below) as a feasible outcome for the MC12. Figure I. U.S. Agricultural Trade, I 998-2020 $bilions 175 1 5 - . a U.S. ImpOrtS S . .. US. Exports 4 Trade Su-plu1 Source: CRS from USDA's Global Agricultural Trade System data (FATUS product group). Data are calendaryear. The July 2021 proposal for decisionby the United States and other W TO members, if implemented, would establish a new, single streamlined export competition notification covering export subsidies, export financing, international food aid, and exporting State Trading Enterprises. The proposal also outlines ways that WTO members might better specify andexplain calculations in their notifications related to domestic support. It further encourages members to report fill rates of their tariff-rate quotas (the amount of imports that qualify for lower tariffs) and to report bound and applied tariffrates applied to products both under quota and outside quota The proposal also seeks reporting on the volume of goods affected by specials afeguards (i.e., temporary import res trictions), among other commitments. The WTO defines transparency as the degree to which trade policies and practices, and the process by which they are es tablished, are open and predictable.W TO member governments have agreed to general notification obligations to inform other members to the maximum extent pos sible of any newly adopted or modified trade measures. Such notification constitutes a transparency obligation requiring member governments to report trade measures that might affect other trading partners. Many W TO agreements require that trademeasures taken by WiTO members be notified to other member nations to allow members to monitor and raise concerns with any new trade measures. The W TO estimates that about one-third of its members have failed to provide timely notificationof their https:/!crs reports.congress.gc

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