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The negotiations within the have
resulted in the following: |
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Agreement on Agriculture |
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Concessions and commitments Members
are to undertake on market access,
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Domestic support and export
subsidies |
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Agreement on Sanitary and
Phytosanitary Measures |
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Ministerial Decision concerning
Least-Developed and Net
Food-Importing Developing countries |
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On the
whole, the results of the
negotiations make a decisive move
towards the objective of increased
market orientation in agricultural
trade.
Other
important issues: |
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Provisions that encourage the use of
less trade-distorting domestic
support policies to maintain the
rural economy. |
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The
introduction of tightly prescribed
provisions that allow some
flexibility in the implementation of
commitments. |
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Specific concerns of developing
countries have been addressed
including the concerns of net-food
importing countries and
least-developed countries. |
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Agreement on Agriculture (AOA) |
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AOA
came into effect on 1 January 1995 after the
Uruguay Round reform program gave birth to the WTO.
Agriculture had been kept out of international
trade talks on grounds that it was too important
for food security. This reform program, as
mentioned earlier seeks to establish fair and
market oriented agricultural system. In the AOA
commitments extend over three areas; Market
Access, Domestic support programs and Export
subsidies. |
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More Resources |
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Market Access |
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“This is a
commitment by WTO signatories to discourage
import restraints. This aspect of the agreement
seeks to eventually eliminate import barriers
thus opening up national borders to provide a
market for agricultural produce from other
countries. In the WTO, non-tariff barriers to
agriculture are replaced by tariff. All tariffs
on agricultural products are reduced by an
average of 36%in DCs and 24%in LDCs. Tariff
quotas are designed to ensure that trade
barriers do not prevent the achievement of the
agreed level of access for products previously
subject to non-tariff barriers. Increased market
access due to the abolition of quotas, which
ensure a limit to quantities that could be
imported from other countries has had adverse
impact on LDCs. This has opened up LDC markets
to food dumping by the North. For instance, the
build up of huge subsidies in the United States
(US)and European Union (EU) designed to protect
their agriculture from cheaper imports from LDCs
resulted in a distortion in international trade
in agriculture as the surpluses generated from
heavy subsidization resulted in increased
dumping of agricultural produce from the North
in developing countries. Due to the threats
imposed by dumping of developed countries
produce and lack of markets for agricultural
produce, many developing countries also felt
that agriculture should be brought into the WTO
umbrella. The expectation was that the rules
based system of trade in agriculture would
improve agricultural exports of LDCs while
protecting their domestic markets from food
dumping by the North”.
Read more about market
access |
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More Resources |
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Domestic Support Programs |
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“Domestic support
programs such as government support to domestic
producers is seen as a distortion in trading
with agricultural commodities. The objective of
this program therefore is to
restructure/restrict domestic support of
agricultural products to ensure that it does not
interfere with foreign trade. Domestic support
measures aimed at providing food to the poor at
subsidized prices are exempted from the
reduction commitments. General government
services aimed at investment promotion and
disease control are also exempted”. |
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Export Subsidy |
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“The commitment on
export subsidy relates in particular, to
government support for export.For each year of
implementation, total budgetary outlays and the
total quantity of export covered by export
subsidy are noted in the country schedule. If a
country has never had subsidies in the
agricultural sector it is not allowed to start
providing export subsidy. There is, however,
special and differential treatment for
developing countries This includes exemptions on
subsidies aimed at reducing the cost of
marketing and transportation of produce”. |
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More Resources |
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AOA and Developing countries |
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“This agreement
could actually serve to encourage exports in
LDCs and reduce dumping by developed nations if
it had been implemented with a proper assessment
of the state of the agricultural sector in
developing countries. As it stands, the
agreement allows countries which have been using
measures for import restraint and domestic
subsidy to retain protection for their
agricultural sector throughout the
implementation period whilst those countries
which were not using protective measures earlier
are prohibited from introducing them. This
exacerbates the problem by allowing countries,
which distorted trade in the past to continue
doing so whilst those who have never done so are
prohibited to use protective measures in future.
This has made developing nations to be even more
vulnerable to dumping by low cost producers” (GENTA
RESEARCH OFFICE,2000) |
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More Resources |
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Ruffer, T.; Swinbank,
A.(2003)
"Stock-take of the WTO
agriculture negotiations:
implications for developing
countries :WTO negotiations: issues
for developing countries"
(Oxford : Oxford Policy Management (OPML)
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GENTA Research Office (2001)
"Trade Liberalization
:Impacts on African Women"
Prepared for The International
Gender and Trade Network (IGTN)
meeting, Cape Town, South Africa |
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Pal,
P.(2001)
"Implementation issues of
the Agreement on Agriculture and its
implications for developing
countries"
(India : Economic Research
Foundation (ERF) |
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Hertel,
T.W.; Anderson, K.; Francois, J. F.;
Martin, W. (1999)
"Agriculture and
Non-agricultural Liberalization in
the Millennium Round"
Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) |
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Robbins, P.(1999)
"Review of the Impact of
Globalization on the Agricultural
Sectors and Rural communities of ACP
countries"
(Wageningen: Technical Centre for
Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA)
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Ingco,
Merlinda, D.
"Has Agricultural Trade
Liberalization Improved Welfare in
the Least Developed Countries? Yes"
(Washington D.C : Policy Research
Working Papers, World Bank) |
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Binswanger, H.P.; Deininger, K.
"Explaining Agricultural
and Agrarian Policies in Developing
Countries" (Washington D.C.:
Policy Research Working Papers,
World Bank) |
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Saunders, Lucy Wood
and Soheir Mehanna. (1986) "Unseen
Hands: Women's Farm Work in an
Egyptian Village"
Anthropological Quarterly 59.3
(July): 105-114 |
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