Cover -- Title Page -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acronyms and Abbreviations -- 1 What's at Stake? Developing-Country Interests in the Doha Development Round -- Introduction -- The Plan of This Chapter -- A Vibrant Agricultural Sector Is Crucial -- Reducing Poverty through Economic Growth -- Improved Food Security -- Conservation -- Trade Liberalization Fuels Prosperity -- Agricultural Trade Lags Industrial Goods Trade -- World Merchandise Trade -- High Tariffs and Other Barriers to Trade -- World Export Growth -- Potential Gains of a Successful Doha Round Are Substantial -- All Gains from Liberalization -- Reaping the Benefits of Liberalization -- Notes -- Select Bibliography -- 2 Trade Agreements: Achievements and Issues Ahead -- Introduction -- The Plan of This Chapter -- How the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture Came About -- Legal Position in the GATT -- The Uruguay Round -- The Agreement on Agriculture -- Article 4: Market Access -- Tariff Peaks and Tariff Escalation -- Exceptions to Bound Tariffs -- Tariff Rate Quotas -- GATT Article XIII -- Agreement on Import Licensing Procedures -- Administration of TRQs -- Article 5: Special Safeguard Provisions -- Price-Based SSG -- Volume-Based SSG -- Article 6: Domestic Support Commitments -- Amber Box -- Green Box General Requirements -- Government Programs -- Direct Payments -- Blue Box -- Varying Domestic Support Levels among Members -- Article 8: Export Competition Commitments -- Article 9: Export Subsidy Commitments -- Rollover of Commitments -- Article 10: Prevention of Circumvention of Export Subsidy Commitments -- Article 12 and Article 13: Export Restraints and Due Restraint -- Due Restraint -- Green Box -- Amber Box and Blue Box -- Export Subsidies -- Article 15: Special and Differential Treatment -- Article 16: The Marrakesh Decision -- Articles 17 and 18: Committee on Agriculture.

Article 20: Continuation of the Reform Process -- Implementation of the Agreement on Agriculture -- The Present Negotiations: The Doha Round -- WTO Committees and Pattern of Negotiations -- Issues for Developing Countries in the Current Negotiations -- Annex: Notification Requirements -- Market Access -- Special Safeguards -- Domestic Support (DS) -- Green Box Measures -- Export Subsidies (ES) -- Marrakesh Declaration -- Notes -- Select Bibliography -- 3 Export Competition Policies -- Introduction -- The Plan of This Chapter -- Circumvention of Export Subsidy Reduction Commitments -- Binding Commitments and the Rollover of Unused Export Subsidies -- The Baseline and the Front-Loading Flexibility -- The Per Unit Subsidy and Asymmetry of Protection -- Expenditure versus Quantity Limits -- Consumer-Only Financed Export Subsidies -- Producer-Financed Export Subsidies -- Other Issues -- Export Credit Programs -- Public Stock Disposal -- Food Aid -- Activities of State Trading Enterprises (STEs) -- Options for Strengthening Disciplines on Export Subsidies in the Negotiations -- Improving Rules on Circumvention -- Annex: Volume versus Expenditure Limits on Export Subsidies -- Notes -- Select Bibliography -- 4 Market Access: Economics and the Effects of Policy Instruments -- Introduction -- The Plan of This Chapter -- Background: Evidence of Market Access Barriers in Agriculture -- Import Protection Levels -- Tariff Peaks and Dispersion -- Tariff Escalation -- Special Safeguard Tariffs -- The Basic Economics of Barriers to Market Access -- The Implications for the Trade Negotiations -- An Empirical Analysis of Options for Liberalizing Tariffs and Tariff Quotas in OECD Countries -- Analyzing the Swiss Formula Approach to Tariff Reductions -- Analyzing Liberalization Scenarios Using the PEM Model.

The Swiss Formula for Improving Market Access in Tariff Rate Quota Regimes -- Policy Options for Market Access Commitments -- Tariff Reductions -- Expanding Quotas Versus Reducing Tariffs -- Notes -- Select Bibliography -- 5 Quota Administration Methods: Economics and Effects with Trade Liberalization -- Introduction -- The Plan of This Chapter -- Alternative Quota Administration Methods -- Characteristics of More Efficient TRQ Administration Methods -- Full Utilization of the TRQ -- Giving TRQs to Firms That Make Best Use of Them -- An Efficient TRQ Operating System -- Aggregation -- Country Reserves -- Restrictions -- Administrative -- Tariff Rate Quotas: GATT, WTO, and URAA Rules -- Import Quota Fill Rates -- Inefficiency of Quota Administration Methods -- Licenses on Demand -- Historical Allocation -- First-Come, First-Served -- State Trading Enterprises -- Lottery -- Additional Conditions -- Policy Options for Reforming Tariff Quota Administration Methods -- Notes -- Select Bibliography -- 6 Domestic Support: Economics and Policy Instruments -- Introduction -- The Plan of This Chapter -- Brief Overview of Domestic Support -- The Aggregate Measurement of Support (AMS) -- Blue Box -- Green Box -- The Economics of Domestic Support and Trade Distortions -- The Effect of Domestic Versus Border Support on Trade Distortion -- PEM Analysis -- The Theory of Decoupling -- Fixed Costs -- Risk and Wealth -- Expectations About Future Policies and Dynamic Considerations -- Imperfect Input Markets -- Toward an Ideal Decoupling Scheme -- Concluding Remarks and Options for the Negotiations -- Notes -- Select Bibliography -- 7 The Distributional Effects of Agricultural Policy Reforms -- Introduction -- The Plan of This Chapter -- Policy Developments in the Grains and Oilseeds Sector -- Agricultural Policy Reform in Mexico -- Some Empirical Results.

Trade Liberalization in All Regions -- Trade Liberalization in Developed Versus Developing Countries -- Implications of Mexico's Change in the Policy Mix -- Further Considerations -- Imperfect Price Transmission -- Imperfect Markets -- Net Suppliers or Demanders? -- Incorporating Off-Farm Labor Decisions -- Complementary Policies -- Summary and Concluding Remarks -- Notes -- Select Bibliography -- 8 The "Multifunctionality" of Agriculture and its Implications for Policy -- Introduction -- The Plan of This Chapter -- Positions of the Parties -- Legal Dimensions -- Economic Perspectives -- General Characteristics of Multifunctionality -- Joint Production -- Externalities -- Government Intervention -- An Analytical Framework -- Valuation of Multifunctional Benefits -- Policy Implications -- Three Multifunctional Outputs from Agriculture -- Agriculture and Environmental Benefits -- Agriculture and Food Security -- Agriculture and Rural Amenities -- Implications and Conclusions -- Notes -- Select Bibliography -- 9 Food Security and Agricultural Trade Policy Reform -- Introduction -- The Plan of This Chapter -- Whose Food Security? -- Individual and Family Food Security -- National Food Security -- International Food Security -- Aftermath of the URAA: The Marrakesh Decision -- Cereal Import Prices for NFIDCs and LDCs Have Not Risen Significantly during the 1990s -- The Evidence Does Not Support the Argument That Cereal Prices Rose during 1995-96 Because of the URAA -- Real Cereal Prices Have Shown a Strong Secular Declining Trend -- Prices Are Unlikely to Increase in the Near Term -- Research Suggests That Multilateral Trade Liberalization Produces Benefits to Net Food-Importing Countries That in Some Cases Offset the Costs from Higher Food Prices -- Measures to Ameliorate the Impact of Shocks That Threaten Food Security -- IMF and World Bank Facilities.

Commodity Price Risk Management Measures -- Commodity Swaps -- Food Aid and Subsidized Credit -- New Approaches to Handling Short-Term Threats to Food Security -- Food Vouchers -- An Ex Ante Fund for Trade Finance -- Notes -- Select Bibliography -- 10 Managing Potential Adverse Impacts of Agricultural Trade Liberalization -- Introduction -- The Plan of This Chapter -- The Move to World Price Regimes: Greater Price Transmission and the Limits to Managing International Price Variability -- Greater Price Transmission Is Perceived as Increasing Producer Vulnerability -- The Role of Developed-Country Subsidies in Lowering World Prices -- The Stochastic Nature of World Prices -- The Practical Relevance of Price Transmission in the Determination of Price Risks Facing Farmers -- The Relevance of Price Transmission -- Policy Implications for Managing Price Risk in the Context of WTO Commitments -- Price Bands -- Price Floors -- General WTO Safeguards and Contingency Measures -- The Special Safeguards Provision (SSG) -- Notes -- Select Bibliography -- 11 The Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement, Food Safety Policies, and Product Attributes -- Introduction -- The Plan of This Chapter -- The SPS Agreement -- Negotiating History -- Salient Features of the SPS Agreement and the Legal Framework -- Main Issues for Developing Countries in the SPS Agreement -- Equivalence -- The Concept of Equivalence and Its Function -- Implementation of Equivalence -- Recognition of Equivalence versus Equivalence Agreements -- Guidelines on the Recognition of Equivalence -- The North-South Dimension of Equivalence -- Equivalence and the Importing Member's Appropriate Level of Protection -- Burden of Proof and Costs Sharing -- Special and Differential Treatment and Technical Assistance -- International Standards and International Standardizing Organizations.

Transparency and Notification Provisions.

Developing Countries, Agriculture and the WTO explores the key issues and options in agricultural trade liberalization from a developing country perspective. The handbook is of particular interest for both developed and developing countries. Chapters cover market access, domestic support, export competition, quota administration methods, food security, biotechnology, intellectual property rights, agricultural trade under the URAA, and many other subjects, always focusing on the question of how the outcome of the WTO negotiations can be made pro-development. Readers are assumed to have at least a basic knowledge of agricultural trade, although many may also be experts in their own areas. Material is covered in summary and in comprehensive detail with supporting data tables, text boxes, figures, and a detailed table of contents. Many chapters have a substantial bibliography, listings of online resources, and tables summarizing the major points of WTO member country proposals that deal directly with each chapter topic.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.