1.6.4. Bali Package

At the 2013 Ministerial Conference in Bali, Indonesia, ministers agreed on a package of issues, including four decisions on agriculture:

♤ an agreement to negotiate a permanent solution to public stockholding for food security purposes, and to refrain from challenging breaches of domestic support commitments resulting from developing countries' public stockholding programmes for food security provided certain conditions are met. This is known as ‘peace clause’

♤ a call for more transparency in tariff (or tariff-rate) quota administration – whereby quantities inside a quota are charged lower import duty rates - and for governments not to create trade barriers by how they distribute quotas among importers

♤ an expansion of the list of "General Services" - to include spending on land use, land reform, water management, and other poverty-reduction programmes -that qualify for Green Box support (i.e. domestic support that is allowed without limits because it does not distort trade, or at most causes minimal distortion).

♤ a declaration to reduce all forms of export subsidies and to enhance transparency and monitoring

In Bali, ministers also agreed to enhance transparency and monitoring in the trading of cotton in recognition of the importance of this sector to developing countries and to work towards the reform of global trade in cotton