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 Cairns Group's 20th Anniversary Ministerial Meeting in Cairns, Australia, from 20 September to 22 September 2006, Ministers issued a strongly worded Communiqué reaffirming the Group’s commitment to achieving ambitious outcomes on agricultural trade liberalisation and calling upon the WTO membership to assess prospects for resumption and take the necessary steps to resume negotiations. 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. These proposals can be found on the Cairns Group Website.
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 program 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 progress the negotiations.
The Cairns Group website outlines the Group's priorities and proposals, and provides the statements from annual Ministerial meetings.