WTO Rules for Agriculture Compatible with Development. Edited by Jamie Morrison and Alexander Sarris
The purpose of this book is to make a contribution towards understanding how WTO trade rules relevant to agriculture can be structured in a manner compatible with the development and poverty alleviation objectives of developing countries.
Despite the many discussions concerning the desirability of incorporating development dimensions into the current round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations, there has been a dearth of discussion concerning how these issues could be specifically incorporated in a Doha Round agreement. The greatest supporters of concluding the Doha Round under the current approach, which focuses on reduction commitments around the three pillars of the negotiations, have used sophisticated models to point out how much developing countries would gain in terms of increased national wealth and reduced levels of poverty by fully liberalizing agricultural trade. However, many countries are not convinced. In large part, this is because the majority of developing countries, especially the poorest, smallest and most vulnerable among them, have seen almost no gains from policy developments following the implementation of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture. Worse, many countries that expected agricultural sector gains given their relative resource endowments and export opportunities, have seen their exports as a share of total world agricultural trade decrease, their agricultural imports increase and their agricultural trade balances decline. This experience has not encouraged them to support further trade liberalization without a clear package of rules that put in place required complementary and compensatory policies and adequate safeguards to greater market opening.
The papers in this book were presented and debated during a two day workshop held at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome in February 2006. The papers, which were revised according to the comments received during intense and constructive discussions during the workshop, are organized to address first more general issues, and then specific issues judged to be important for structuring development friendly WTO rules. The final part of the book comprises four papers addressing agricultural trade concerns of specific regional groups of developing countries.
