Trade in agriculture
The Cairns Group
The Cairns Group of 19 agricultural exporting countries plays an instrumental role in achieving global agricultural trade reform. A diverse coalition bringing together developed and developing countries from the Americas, Africa, Asia and the Pacific region, the Cairns Group has been an influential voice in the agricultural reform debate since its formation in 1986.
Chaired by Australia, the Cairns Group has continued to play a key role in setting the agenda for the agriculture negotiations and pressing the WTO membership to meet in full the far-reaching mandate set in Doha.
At the last Cairns Group's Ministerial Meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, 20 July 2008, Ministers issued a strongly worded Communiqué reaffirming the Group’s commitment to working with all WTO Members to ensure that the Doha Round is good for development, for agricultural trade reform and for the multilateral trading system.
An important part of the Cairns Group’s contribution to the agriculture negotiations has been its technical work. During the proposal-based phase of the Doha Round in 2003, the Cairns Group developed detailed negotiating proposals setting out blueprints for ambitious reforms across the three main areas of the agriculture negotiations: market access, domestic support and export subsidies. The agriculture text now before Ministers provides a basis on which key outstanding issues can be resolved if there is sufficient political will.
In July 2004, the Framework Agreement on Agriculture was agreed by WTO Members. Importantly, the Framework met a number of Cairns Group objectives including the elimination of export subsidies, the inclusion of new disciplines on government-supported export credit programs and foreshadowed big cuts in domestic support provided to farmers by many wealthy countries. The market access part of the framework agreement also provides for substantial tariff reductions leading to substantial access improvements for all products.
Cairns Group officials meet regularly in Geneva to share technical information and discuss negotiating positions. The Cairns Group also works closely with other groupings such as the G20 to urge WTO members to show flexibility and work towards concluding the negotiations.
The Cairns Group website outlines the Group's priorities and proposals and provides the statements from annual Ministerial meetings, as well as containing information on other issues relevant to reforming agricultural trade.