Oct 10, 2017 | Blog

Sustainable Land Water Management The CAADP Pillar

New challenges have also emerged since the Agreement on Agriculture was signed: from market concentration among a few large corporations (notably on products of immediate interest to Africa, such as coffee or cocoa), to the financialization of commodity markets which has failed to redress the volatility in international prices; from the impact of climate change, to the increasing weight of non-tariff barriers. So far there is no breakthrough on meaningful reductions in domestic support (or domestic subsidies) by the major subsidizers including the US, EU and Japan. Given the clear understanding that the outcome in agriculture will be calibrated with the outcome in the other areas under negotiation, including non-agriculture market access (NAMA) and services, this in effect means that the possibility of concluding the Doha Round is not in sight.  This also implies that the WTO is not yet in a position to provide impetus for a significant contribution towards the post-2015 development framework, although trade has been recognized in the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a ‘means of implementation’for a new, bolder agenda.