Agricultural Trade : What Matters in the Doha Round?
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...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2012/11/16952254/agricultural-trade-matters-doha-round http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19926 |
| Summary: | 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. |
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