Doha Agenda

The November 2001 declaration of the Fourth Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar, provides an opportunity for negotiations on a range of subjects that include all problems of agriculture and services, which began in early 2000.

This complete package starting from negotiation in 2001 to implementation in late 2005 was called Doha Development Agenda (DDA).

In Doha, Ministers also approved a discussion on problems that developing countries were facing in implementing the WTO agreements.

More than 40 items under 12 headings were settled in Doha Development Agenda.

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) back to top

Balance-of-payments exception: clarifying less stringent conditions in GATT for developing countries if they restrict imports in order to protect their balance-of-payments.

Market-access commitments: clarifying eligibility to negotiate or be consulted on quota allocation.

Agriculture back to top

Rural development and food security for developing countries

Least-developed and net food-importing developing countries

Export credits, export credit guarantees or insurance programmes

Tariff rate quotas

Sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures back to top

More time for developing countries to comply with other countries’ new SPS measures

“Reasonable interval” between publication of a country’s new SPS measure and its entry into force

Equivalence: putting into practice the principle that governments should accept that different measures used by other governments can be equivalent to their own measures for providing the same level of health protection for food, animals and plants.

Review of the SPS Agreement

Developing countries’ participation in setting international SPS standards

Financial and technical assistance

Textiles and clothing back to top

“Effective” use of the agreement’s provisions on early integration of products into normal GATT rules, and elimination of quotas....