Public
FTAA.soc/civ/49
June 11, 2002

Original: English

FTAA - COMMITTEE OF GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES ON THE PARTICIPATION OF
CIVIL SOCIETY

CONTRIBUTION IN RESPONSE TO THE OPEN AND ONGOING INVITATION

AGRICULTURE WORKSHOP RECOMMENDATIONS
Prepared for the VII Americas Business Forum
Quito, ECUADOR
October 30-31, November 1, 2002

INTRODUCTION:

Caribbean Latin American Action (CLAA) is a non-profit organization, governed by an international Board of Trustees, that promotes private sector generated economic development in the Caribbean and Latin America. CLAA has played an active role by engaging the business community in the move toward a Free Trade Area of the Americas and serving as a vehicle for private sector input at each of the major FTAA meetings, including the three Summit of the Americas and subsequent business fora in Denver, Colorado (1995); Cartagena, Colombia (1996); Belo Horizonte, Brazil (1997); San José, Costa Rica (1998); Toronto, Canada (1999) and Buenos Aires, Argentina (2001). CLAA's work program is divided along sectoral lines with a “business team” of company representatives from each sector established to identify public policy actions which governments could take to increase regional prosperity through trade and investment liberalization.

CLAA believes that the FTAA will make the various agricultural sectors in the Hemisphere more efficient. The reduction of the various Hemispheric trade barriers shifts production toward the more efficient producers and enables consumers to purchase goods at lower prices. Furthermore, CLAA supports the FTAA mandate to make itself a “subsidy free zone” with all members pledging to neither extend subsidies on their own exports, nor to admit subsidized imports from outside the region.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Standards as Barriers to Trade

• Governments should ensure that national food safety, quality, sanitary and phytosanitary standards (SPS) are equivalent to standards set by international bodies within the constraints of national law. Where national standards are not fully developed, governments should accept international standards.
   

• SPS measures should be dealt with at a technical and not a political level. Governments should demonstrate a commitment to trade by removing non-tariff barriers used to protect local producers and by making legitimate policies transparent to prevent misunderstandings and confusion. Standards should comply with international guidelines and be administered with an international referee clause.
   

• Countries willing to pay for technical assistance in the product qualification and pre-inspection process should receive assistance from the developed countries or international bodies. A greater capacity for pre-inspection of produce and meat processing facilities overseas would help dispel the notion that inspections are used to slow or prohibit produce entry. The private sector should finance the development of training on grades and standards to increase the number of personnel qualified for pre-inspection. Importers should share this expense in order to reduce the burden on exporting countries to finance such facilities.
   

• The FTAA should adopt a uniform Hemispheric food inspection standard based on U.S. and Canadian models.

Enforcement Capabilities

• Governments should commit themselves to improving national SPS programs. Companies will not contribute to offset the cost of these programs unless they see serious efforts made at the highest levels of governments to bring national programs into compliance with the WTO. Governments must move toward equivalence with SPS operations in the region and increase technical training for government officials and the private sector.

Private Sector Empowerment

• Governments should cooperate with the private sector to develop a direct channel of communication for companies to use in emergency situations, including procedures for mitigating the effect of detentions, and a system to provide information on the specific reasons for detention.
   

• Governments should ensure there are enough food safety inspectors at the port level and regulatory agencies must work more closely importers to maintain open dialogue which will enable them to address emergencies quickly, with less product damage and less expense to all parties involved.
   

• Tariff-rate quotas should still be employed to prevent market saturation and be applied in a transparent, market oriented and pro-competitive manner so that importers can receive forecasts of government crop projections.
   

• Governments should consider the outsourcing to the private sector for tasks which they could provide more efficiently and competitively, such as transportation of products from ports of entry to fumigation sites and the fumigation of products. However, as food inspection is a public health, i.e. government function, the FTAA should provide for a body that trains and certifies inspectors that can give commodity pest risk assessments required for introducing new crops into export markets.

Dispute Resolution

• The proposed FTAA should include a consultative and dispute settlement mechanism to deal with intra-regional SPS issues, similar to that provided in the NAFTA.