WTO and
Agricultural Trade – Some Issues and Perspectives
Ravinder Rena*
Abstarct
In
the Uruguay Round Agreement, the rules governing
agricultural trade were changed fundamentally. Members
have agreed to convert all non-tariff agricultural
barriers (NTBs) to ordinary tariffs, to bind all
agricultural tariffs, and to subject them to reductions.
Members have also agreed to establish tariff-rate quotas
(TRQs) to preserve historical trade levels and to create
some new trade opportunities in highly protected
markets. Some reductions in agricultural tariffs also
were achieved. Nonetheless, agricultural tariffs remain
to be very high for some politically sensitive products
in some developing countries, limiting the trade
benefits from the new rules. The failure of trade
negotiators, who met at Geneva to narrow their
differences on the modalities of compiling detailed cuts
in tariffs and agricultural subsidies, is no doubt a
setback to multilateral trade negotiations. This paper
analyses the impact of WTO agricultural trade policies
on developing economies. An attempt is made to discuss
the benefits and risks for agricultural trade associated
with the changes in international trade. The paper also
delves agricultural reforms that were introduced by the
GATT prior to 1995. The paper examines whether the
reforms were useful for the developing countries or not.
By way of a summing up, some insights are set out to
provoke analysis and debate on the controversial WTO
talks.
JEL. Classification: Q16; Q 18
Keywords: WTO, Agriculture Tariff, GATT, Market Access, Developing Countries, Quotas
