Agricultural trade: What Matters in the Doha Round?

Agricultural trade: What Matters in the Doha Round? PDF Author: David Laborde
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description
In this paper, we provide an overview of the agricultural trade negotiations within the current World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations and we show that including agriculture in the Doha Development Agenda talks is important both economically and politically, although the political resistance to reform is particularly strong in this sector. While agriculture accounts for less than 10 percent of merchandise trade, high and variable agricultural distortions appear to cause the majority of the cost of distortions to global merchandise trade. Within agriculture, most of the costs appear to arise from trade barriers levied on imports, since these barriers tend to be high, variable across time and over products, and levied by a wide range of countries. The negotiations face a need for balance between discipline in reducing tariffs—hence creating the market access gains that are central to the negotiations—and flexibility in managing political pressures. While the approach of providing flexibility on a certain percentage of tariff lines is seriously flawed, the proposed modalities still appear to provide worthwhile market access. Better ways appear to be needed to deal with developing countries’ concerns about food price volatility while reducing the collective-action problems resulting from price insulation.

Agricultural trade: What Matters in the Doha Round?

Agricultural trade: What Matters in the Doha Round? PDF Author: David Laborde
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 32

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this paper, we provide an overview of the agricultural trade negotiations within the current World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations and we show that including agriculture in the Doha Development Agenda talks is important both economically and politically, although the political resistance to reform is particularly strong in this sector. While agriculture accounts for less than 10 percent of merchandise trade, high and variable agricultural distortions appear to cause the majority of the cost of distortions to global merchandise trade. Within agriculture, most of the costs appear to arise from trade barriers levied on imports, since these barriers tend to be high, variable across time and over products, and levied by a wide range of countries. The negotiations face a need for balance between discipline in reducing tariffs—hence creating the market access gains that are central to the negotiations—and flexibility in managing political pressures. While the approach of providing flexibility on a certain percentage of tariff lines is seriously flawed, the proposed modalities still appear to provide worthwhile market access. Better ways appear to be needed to deal with developing countries’ concerns about food price volatility while reducing the collective-action problems resulting from price insulation.

Agricultural Trade

Agricultural Trade PDF Author: David Laborde
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
This survey concludes that including agriculture in the negotiations was particularly important economically. Although agricultural exports are less than 10% of merchandise trade, the high and variable protection in this sector appears to account for the majority of the cost of distortions in global merchandise trade. Within agriculture, most of the costs appear to arise from trade barriers levied on imports, because these barriers tend to be high and variable across products and over time and are levied by many countries that do not use subsidies. The diverse interests of participants resulted in very complex proposals and a tendency for countries to focus on the political costs of an agreement, rather than on the potential economic benefits. The negotiations faced a need for balance between discipline in reducing tariffs and flexibility in managing political pressures. Although the approach of providing flexibilities on a certain percentage of tariff lines is seriously flawed, the proposed modalities still appear to provide worthwhile market access. There need to be better ways of dealing with developing countries' concerns about food price volatility while reducing the collective-action problems resulting from price insulation.

Agricultural Trade

Agricultural Trade PDF Author: David Laborde Debucquet
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Commercial policy
Languages : en
Pages : 39

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Book Description
"This survey concludes that including agriculture in the Doha Agenda negotiations was important both economically and politically, although the political resistance to reform is particularly strong in this sector. While agriculture accounts for less than 10 percent of merchandise trade, high and variable agricultural distortions appear to cause the majority of the cost of distortions to global merchandise trade. Within agriculture, most of the costs appear to arise from trade barriers levied on imports since these barriers tend to be high, variable across time and over products, and are levied by a wide range of countries. The negotiations faced a need for balance between discipline in reducing tariffs and hence creating the market access gains that are central to the negotiations, and flexibility in managing political pressures. While the approach of providing flexibility on a certain percentage of tariff lines is seriously flawed, the proposed Modalities still appear to provide worthwhile market access. Better ways appear to be needed to deal with developing countries' concerns about food price volatility while reducing the collective-action problems resulting from price insulation"--Abstract.

Agriculture and the WTO

Agriculture and the WTO PDF Author: Merlinda D. Ingco
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 082135485X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 411

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Book Description
Annotation This comprehensive reference explores the key issues and options in agricultural trade liberalization from a developing country perspective. Throughout, the focus is on ensuring that the outcome of WTO negotiations contributes to growth in developing countries.

Reforming Agricultural Trade for Developing Countries: Key issues for a pro-development outcome of the Doha Round negotiations

Reforming Agricultural Trade for Developing Countries: Key issues for a pro-development outcome of the Doha Round negotiations PDF Author: John Nash
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
Presents several different approaches to modeling the effects of the outcome of the Doha negotiations, and investigates why these (and other) modeling efforts produce such divergent results. By comparing and contrasting these approaches, this work helps readers develop an understanding of the mechanics and implications of modeling techniques.

Agricultural Trade Reform and the Doha Development Agenda

Agricultural Trade Reform and the Doha Development Agenda PDF Author: Kym Anderson
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821362402
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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Book Description
Providing the most complete and up to date analysis of the range of agricultural issues under negotiation in the multilateral trade negotiations underway in the World Trade Organization (WTO), this title is a valuable resource to policymakers, agricultural private sector, and academics in developing and assessing the negotiating options.

Reforming Agricultural Trade for Developing Countries

Reforming Agricultural Trade for Developing Countries PDF Author: Alex F. McCalla
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 082136717X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
In the ongoing Doha Development Round of World Trade Organization negotiations, developing countries have had much greater leverage, due at least in part to their large and growing share of world trade. But will the increased influence of developing countries translate into a final agreement that is truly more development-friendly? What would be key ingredients in such a final outcome of the negotiations, and what would the developing countries really get out of it. This two volume set seeks to answer these questions. This volume (Volume 2) addresses the question of how a development-friendly outcome to the talks would affect developing countries by quantifying the impact of multilateral trade reform. It presents several different approaches to modeling the effects of the outcome of negotiations, and then investigates why these (and other) modeling efforts produce such divergent results. Volume 1 is issues-oriented. It takes up some key questions in the negotiations, setting the stage with a historical overview of the Doha Development Agenda to help identify issues of most significance to developing countries, and then explores select issues in greater depth. Aimed at policymakers and stakeholders, this two-volume effort puts into the public domain important analytical work that will improve the chance for a pro-development outcomes of the Doha round negotiations.

WTO negotiations on agriculture and developing countries

WTO negotiations on agriculture and developing countries PDF Author: Hoda, Anwarul
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN: 0801886988
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
The World Trade Organization’s Doha Round of trade talks has been plagued by a lack of concrete progress toward establishing a fair and harmonious agricultural trading system. Because the results of the Doha Round could have far-reaching implications for the trade and economic prospects of developing countries in the twenty-first century, it is critical for these countries to fully understand the issues involved in the negotiations on agriculture. However, there has been no authoritative analysis of the rules and modalities on which governments of developing countries can rely. This book, coauthored by an insider to the trade talks that led to the establishment of the WTO, fills this gap. The volume begins with a detailed analysis of the provisions of the WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture and the modalities of the negotiations. It examines the implementation experience of key members of the WTO, then traces the developments in the negotiations up to the recent impasse. In light of these considerations, and on the basis of a case study of India, the authors propose various elements of a negotiating position and strategy for developing countries. The authors offer tough but realistic recommendations regarding tariffs, market access, treatment of sensitive or special products, and other aspects of international trade. This book will be of particular interest to researchers and practitioners as well as students seeking in-depth knowledge of the recent history of agricultural trade talks.

Trade Issues in the Doha Round

Trade Issues in the Doha Round PDF Author: Mr.Stephen Tokarick
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1451946163
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 24

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Book Description
The current round of multilateral trade negotiations-the Doha Round-presents an opportunity for countries to reap the benefits of trade liberalization. Unfortunately, a number of misconceptions about the likely impact of trade reforms has, in part, impeded more rapid progress toward completion of the Round. This paper addresses some of the most egregious of these misconceptions and presents results from IMF research that sheds light on these issues. In particular, this paper argues that: (i) developing countries have much to gain from their own trade liberalization; (ii) preference erosion could be significant for some countries, but it is not a justification for postponing tariff reductions; (iii) tariffs applied against agricultural products in rich countries actually harm developing countries more than subsidies; and (iv) a disproportionate share of agricultural subsidies in rich countries goes to large wealthy farmers.

Negotiating agricultural trade in a new policy environment

Negotiating agricultural trade in a new policy environment PDF Author: Glauber, Joseph W.
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 33

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Book Description
The challenges to meeting the growing global food demand—population and income growth and supply uncertainties complicated by climate change, environmental pressures, and water scarcity—all point to the increasing importance of trade and the need for a more, not less, open trading system. Growth in agricultural trade has been facilitated in part through the rules-based system established under the World Trade Organization (WTO), particularly the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (AoA). The AoA was implemented in 1995 and brought substantial discipline to the areas of market access, domestic support, and export competition. However, progress since the Uruguay Round has been limited. While the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) was launched with much anticipation in 2001, members failed to reach agreement in July 2008 and the trade agenda in Geneva has since advanced slowly. Despite the best efforts of many, the negotiating intensity seen in late 2007 and 2008 has largely dissipated, in part due to the global recession and the inevitable changes in governments that sometime shift the focus of negotiations. Serious efforts were made to renew the negotiations, but in the end, members have had to be content with harvesting the low-hanging fruit, such as trade facilitation and export competition. Although there have been significant accomplishments, they represent but a small portion of what was on the table during the DDA negotiations. In addition, negotiated settlements on the tougher issues, such as market access and domestic support, have become more difficult to obtain in isolation. The recent experience at the WTO’s Eleventh Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires highlights the difficulties of reaching a negotiated settlement on domestic support in isolation from, say, market access. Given the increasing importance of trade in addressing food security needs and its critical role in efforts to eliminate malnutrition and hunger by 2030, achieving further progress in the liberalization of world trade is of paramount importance.