Within the framework of the notification obligations of the countries, drafts of the technical regulation or conformity assessment procedure, which are deemed to be prepared and put into practice, must be notified to the WTO Secretariat through the notification authorities of the countries. A minimum of 60 days must be provided to other countries for comments.

The National Notification Authority responsible for notification obligations in our country is the Ministry of Economy.

2.4. The WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement)

The SPS Agreement sets out the content and limits of measures that countries can take in order to ensure food safety and protect human, animal and plant health.

Enter into Force: 01/01/1995 (following the Uruguay Round)

Scope: Except for fisheries, aquaculture and forestry products, by 1-24 GTIP regulate the international trade of agricultural products such as linen, hemp, silkworm, mohair.

Objective: it is aimed controlling the trade restricting-protectionist policies; reduce protection gradually at the agricultural area.

Within the scope of this Agreement, agricultural issues; rests on three pillars market access, internal support and export competition.

1.  Market Access

Due to the absence of non-tariff barriers, Turkey has not made a tariffication and has carried out only the prescribed tariff reduction over the bound rates.

2.  Internal Support

In the Agriculture Agreement, agricultural subsidies, provided by countries to farmers, are categorized according to their trade distorting effects. The "box" system is adopted in the WTO jargon for easy understanding of the internal support system.

Amber Box: It is the kind of domestic support that is disruptive to trade and to which certain limits are imposed. Premiums, intervention purchases, input supports are in this category.

Our country did not make commitment to reduce "internal supports" on the grounds that, in the 1986-88 reference periods, the trade deficit support on product basis did not exceed 10% of the total production value. In terms of our country, de-minimis level is binding. For the terms of our country, for trade-distorting red box supports, de-minimis level are binding, which corresponding to 10% of total production value.

Blue Box: direct payments which are exempt from the reduction in the scope of the programs that limiting the production. Alternative product support can be assessed in this category.

Green Box: They are exempt from discount commitments with little or no detrimental effect on trade and production. Budget expenditures made by the agriculture sector such as research, pest and disease control, infrastructure services are in the green box.

3.  Export Subsidies

Within the scope of export competitiveness column, the following are regulated by the Agricultural Agreement:

In the event that a dispute between the World Trade Organization countries is formally transferred to the WTO platform, it is firstly necessary for countries to have bilateral consultations. In the event that this consultation cannot be concluded, an ad hoc ("temporary") Panel is established and the WTO General Council concludes the dispute by "Dispute Settlement Body" (DSB). The Member States may also exercise their appeal rights as a result of this decision. However, the decision of the Appeal Body will be binding.

This mechanism can only be applied to commercial disputes between states. Commercial disputes between individuals or companies are outside the mechanism.

The Mechanism of Settlement of Disputes distinguishes the WTO from other international organizations related to trade. a mechanism that functions as a court can be used to sanction various sanctions against members who do not comply with WTO rules.

The DSB has the authority to create panels, accept panel and appellate body reports, monitor the implementation of decisions and recommendations, and, where necessary, allow the concessions and other obligations under WTO Agreements to be suspended.

Although the most benefiting from the Mechanism of Settlement of Disputes seem to be the developed countries, developing countries are increasingly resorting to this mechanism.in recent years.

4. WTO Doha Development Agenda Agricultural Negotiations

In accordance with Article 20 of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture, negotiations have been agreed to continue in order to increase liberalization. In this context, WTO Advanced Agricultural Negotiations started in 2000; in 2001, it was included in the Doha Development Agenda.

5. 11th Ministerial Conference of WTO

11th Ministerial Conference of World Trade Organization (WTO) was held in the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires between December 10 and 13, 2017. Agenda of the Conference included agriculture and fishery subjects: particularly banning subsidies given to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing; public stocks for food security; restrictions to domestic supports and agricultural exports. However, any agreement on these subjects could not be reached at the end of negotiations.