coll. - OECD review of agricultural policies. Colombia 2015.

This Review of Agricultural Policies: Colombia is one of a series of reviews of national agricultural policies undertaken by the OECDs Committee for Agriculture. On 29 May 2013, the OECD Council decided to open accession discussions with Colombia. On 19 September 2013, the Council adopted a Roadmap for the Accession of Colombia to the OECD Convention [C(2013)110/FINAL] (hereafter the Roadmap) setting out the terms, conditions and process for accession. The Roadmap provides that in order to allow the OECD Council to take an informed decision, Colombia will undergo in-depth reviews by the relevant OECD technical committees, including the Committee for Agriculture, which will then provide the Council with a formal opinion evaluating Colombia's willingness and ability to implement OECD legal instruments, and assessing Colombias policies and practices as compared to OECD best policies and practices.

This Review is being used as a background document for the accession review currently being undertaken by the OECD Committee for Agriculture as part of the process for Colombias accession to the OECD. In accordance with paragraph 14 of Colombias Accession Roadmap, the Committee for Agriculture agreed to declassify the report in its current version and publish it under the authority of the Secretary General, in order to allow a wider audience to become acquainted with the issues raised in the report. Publication of this document and the analysis and recommendations contained therein does not prejudge in any way the results of the ongoing review of Colombia by the Committee for Agriculture as part of its process of accession to the OECD.

The Review examines the policy context and the main trends in Colombias agriculture. It classifies and measures the support provided to agriculture using the same method the OECD employs to monitor agricultural policies in OECD countries and a growing number of non-member economies, such as Brazil, China, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Russia, South Africa and Ukraine. On request from the Colombian authorities, the Review includes a special chapter on key challenges for the agricultural innovation system, drawing on the framework developed at OECD to analyse the role of the government in fostering innovation in the food and agricultural sector. The Review is a precursor to continue OECD engagement with Colombia on agricultural policy issues through the regular monitoring of agricultural policy developments.

The study was carried out by the Trade and Agriculture Directorate (TAD). Dalila Cervantes-Godoy co-ordinated the report and was one of the authors together with Silvia Sorescu and Catherine Moreddu. Valuable background information was provided by Natalia Mayorga (Colombia) for Parts I and II and by Luis Alberto Zuleta and Lino Jaramillo (Colombia) for Part III. Statistical support was provided by Florence Bossard. Anita Lari provided administrative and secretarial assistance. Michael Thomas provided editorial support. Anita Lari and Michle Patterson provided publication support. Carmel Cahill, Christian Daude, Jared Greenville, Sebastian Nieto-Parra, Raffaelle Trapasso, Trudy Witbreuk and many other colleagues in the OECD Secretariat and member country delegations furnished valuable comments on earlier drafts of the report.