ABSTRACT
A new round of agricultural negotiations was launched on March 24, 2000 in Geneva. The WTO Agriculture Committee, meeting in "special session", decided on a timetable for the first phase of the talks. On May 9, 2000, Jorge Voto-Bernales was appointed as Chairman of the Agriculture Committee for the initial stage of the WTO agricultural negotiations. The WTO Director-General, Mike Moore, remarked on the "constructive and businesslike" manner in which delegates had conducted the first meeting, and said that the "goodwill" shown at the meeting was a good omen for the talks. Starting the talks, of course, is easier than bringing them to a successful conclusion, but after the chaos in Seattle any good news was welcomed in trade circles. The first phase of the talks concluded with a "stocktaking" of the proposals for the negotiations, in June 2001, and moved onto the "second phase" of the talks, elaborating on the "modalities that could be used to achieve the objectives. The talks were given a boost by the successful outcome of the Doha WTO Ministerial in November 2001. An ambitious timetable was established for the remainder of the negotiations, that included agreeing on the modalities by March 2003 and presenting draft schedules incorporating the obligations implied by such modalities by the time of the next Ministerial, scheduled for later in 2003.
