WTO Public Symposium 2003: Agriculture
The Agreement on Agriculture
Until 1994, GATT rules had been largely ineffective in regulating agricultural trade, and agricultural exporting countries insisted that the Uruguay Round should reverse the rising trend in agricultural protection. The Agreement on Agriculture generated during the Uruguay Round negotiations covered issues of market access, domestic support and export subsidies. WTO members had intended that a new Agreement on Agriculture would be reached before the September 2003 WTO ministerial conference in Cancun, Mexico; but they failed to agree on modalities for future negotiations by the March 2003 deadline. It was not entirely clear whether this meant that they should have agreed on the rules of negotiation or on actual commitments, but the lack of compromise thus far has indicated to many that a new agreement is not likely to come out of Cancun.
The EU, Japan and Norway maintain the most supportive argument for subsidies and protection based on the "multifunctionality" of agriculture, while developing countries are pushing for reduced subsides and greater market access for their produce in industrial countries. The US and the
Cairns Group of 17 agricultural exporting countries, both developing and industrial, attempted to draft their own proposals for liberalization.
The argument for multifunctionality attempts to justify that agriculture should be supported and protected because it performs many important roles outside of providing food and fiber including food security, cultural preservation, rural economic stability, prevention of natural disaster, biodiversity, environmental conservation and employment. Most developing countries, however, see this reasoning as a mere excuse for agricultural protection and would prefer strong multilateral rules to reduce tariffs and subsidies in industrial countries. These rules, most assert, should be tailored to allow flexibility for achieving broader development goals and for protection against global commodity market fluctuations in poor countries. The agricultural sectors of developing countries tend to be more liberalized than those of industrial countries, especially where the World Bank and IMF have implemented structural adjustment programs. These developing countries, therefore, hold that it is now up to the industrialized world to reciprocate by cutting subsidies and tariffs with the effect of reducing excess production.
See the following pages for information on these topics specific
to agriculture:
Additional Sources
Cancun
WTO Meet: What are the Key Issues? The Economic Times
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