The road from Doha to Hong Kong in the WTO agricultural negotiations: a developing country perspective

Developing countries have both offensive and defensive interestsin the Doha Round of WTO trade negotiations. This paper discussesthe extent to which these interests have been addressed in theJuly 2004 Framework Agreement and in the subsequent negotiations.Many of the key demands of developing countries appear to havebeen accepted in principle in the Agreement, but the lack ofspecific details on how most of these principles will be operationalisedmakes it hard to evaluate their real significance. Progressis needed on the development dimension of the negotiations ifthe Hong Kong Ministerial Council meeting is to succeed.     

The negotiations on agriculture in the Doha Development Agenda Round: current status and future prospects

The paper briefly discusses developments in the negotiationson agriculture in the WTO Doha Development Agenda Round fromJanuary 2000 to September 2005 and identifies the main elementsto be considered when speculating on the outcome of the MinisterialConference in Hong Kong.     

Eastern enlargement of the EU and its implications for agriculture and agricultural policies

In 2004 ten Eastern and Southern European countries will join the EU. Agriculture and agricultural policy is an important issue in this EU enlargement process, for several reasons. This paper assesses the implications of the enlargement process for agriculture and agricultural policies.     

Agricultural trade reform under the Doha Agenda: some key issues*

A successful agreement on agriculture is essential for an overall agreement under the WTO's Doha trade negotiations. Reaching agreement has been difficult, and as of August 2007, much still remains to be done if a successful agreement is to be reached. We consider three of the most controversial areas of the agricultural negotiations: the relative importance of domestic support, market access and export subsidies; three market access issues of sensitive‐product exceptions sought for all countries and, the additional special product exceptions sought for developing countries, the proposed special safeguard mechanism; and the domestic support issue. We show that decisions made on reform in these areas will have a critical influence on whether the negotiations achieve their objectives of promoting trade reform and reducing poverty.     

Conceptualising multifunctional agriculture from a global perspective: Implications for governing agricultural trade in the post-Doha Round era

The notion of multifunctional agriculture has been researched from diverse disciplines including economics, sociology, political economy, and geography since the URAA. In particular, the economics approach represents an attempt to tailor the concept of multifunctional agriculture to market- oriented WTO trade regime. The approach has been fundamentally troubled by the lack of concord among WTO member countries on the question of what constitutes multifunctional agriculture. This article redefines multifunctional agriculture as a concept encompassing six components that are extremely heterogeneous in their nature of external benefits. Upon examining different positions taken by the US, the EU, the Cairns group, LDCs, and the G10, this article develops a conceptual model explaining why the notion of multifunctional agriculture is conceived so differently across countries. The model posits that institutions, natural resources endowment, ecological conditions, farm policies, and culture/history unique to each country would determine the state of economic development and agricultural competitiveness in a country, which in turn shape the pattern of social demand for various components of multifunctional agriculture. The theorizing undertakes to overcome the Euro- centrism that has dictated the discourse of multifunctional agriculture since the URAA. Implications are discussed for the governance of agricultural trade in the post-Doha Round era.     

Special and differential treatment in the WTO agricultural negotiations: Analysis and policy recommendation

The on-going Doha Development Round under the World Trade Organization (WTO) has its main focus on development. This is due to the widespread disappointment with the results from the former Uruguay Round Agreement. Developing countries have not reaped the benefits of free trade. For this current Round to be a success, developing countries have to be more integrated in the multilateral trading system. One of the means of integrating is Special and Differential Treatment (SDT). SDT is a deviation from the basic principle of Most Favoured Nation, positing that developing countries can have more flexibility than others. This article investigates the positions on SDT made by WTO members. The analysis gives some insights into the negotiations. First, the analysis reveals the fact that the positions of WTO members are relatively close to each other. This could indicate that countries in fact agree or that sensitive areas are maintained as yet unaffected. Second, being able to sustain a certain level of tariff rates attracts most interest from developing countries. Third, higher income developing countries want to retain their right to support domestic producers. Finally, the article identifies the July Package right in the middle of the positions which indicate a future agreement.     

The 2005 WTO arbitration and the new EU import regime for bananas: a cut too far?

In 2001 an agreement was reached at the WTO for the EU to introducea ‘tariff-only’ regime which ‘would resultin at least maintaining total market access for MFN banana suppliers’.The analysis shows that, contrary to the WTO 2005 ruling, theimport regime proposed by the EU in the second step of the arbitrationwould have satisfied the requirement. The regime introducedon 1 January 2006 is expected to yield in 2007 MFN imports 400,000 tabove the level that would have occurred under the previousregime. In the longer run, MFN countries will see their exportsexpand, while the opposite would have happened had the new regimenot been introduced.     

Multifunctional agriculture, policy measures and the WTO: the Norwegian case

One of the questions debated in the ongoing WTO agricultural negotiations is whether 'trade-distorting' subsidies, or subsidies outside the 'green box', are needed in order to pursue non-trade concerns. The term 'multifunctional agriculture' is increasingly applied to describe non-trade concerns. This article focuses on how to achieve the multifunctional goals that nations may have with minimal trade-distortion. In the first part of the article, this is done by a literature review and a theoretical analysis. The findings are then converted into an analysis of possible policy formulations in a Norwegian context using a partial equilibrium model. The article argues that multifunctionality hardly can justify the use of market support, while it may justify production-related budget support if the positive externalities or public goods are produced jointly with or complementary to agricultural production. The article concludes with suggestions for WTO trade rules to prevent such policies from becoming a form of protectionism.     

Domestic Support and Border Measures for Processed Horticultural Products

In horticultural markets, trade barriers often apply to the processed products whereas domestic support applies to farm-produced raw commodities. Here we assess the effects of such trade barriers and domestic support by simulating the effects of policy reform on global processing tomato markets, which are faced with modest processed product tariffs and high domestic support in the European Union (EU). Both protection and EU subsidy drive down world welfare, but we find that reducing import tariffs for tomato products would yield greater effects on markets and larger welfare impacts outside Europe than would reductions in EU domestic support.     

Global investments in agricultural land and the role of the EU: Drivers,scope and potential impacts

This paper investigates the recent wave of investments in agricultural land, often referred to as land grabbing; a term that not only emphasises the appropriation of resources by investors but also implies a criticism of their potential impacts on livelihoods and ecosystems in the target countries. This phenomenon has increasingly been the focus of public attention as well as a source of concern for NGOs, international institutions, academia and civil society. More specifically, this study investigates the role that the European Union member states play, both collectively and individually, in this wave of acquisitions in agricultural land, by providing a comprehensive overview of the drivers, scope and potential impacts of these land deals.     

The impact of EU trade preferences on the extensive and intensive margins of agricultural and food products

In this article, we study the trade creation effects of EU preferential trade agreements (PTAs) in the agriculture and food sectors for a large sample of developing countries in the period 1990–2006. We investigate the extent to which the PTAs affect trade through the extensive margin—number of exported products—or the intensive margin—volume of existing products. We use a gravity framework in a panel data setting, and different estimators to deal with the issues of zero trade flows and the presence of an upper bound in the dependent variable. The results show that EU PTAs positively affect the extensive margin in agricultural trade, but not in processed foods. As regards the intensive margin, the effect is driven by the role of tariffs alone, whereas the other provisions of PTAs do not exert any other significant impact on agricultural or food products.     

Women farmers’ participation in the agricultural research process: implications for agricultural sustainability in Ethiopia

Empowering women farmers to participate in agricultural research is a key strategy for sustainable agricultural development. Women empowerment has the potential to improve their roles in agricultural production while enhancing nutrition and food security. Although new agricultural development policies are focusing on improving women engagement in agriculture, there is limited literature on women empowerment in relation to agricultural research. This study used mixed methods to analyse women farmers’ participation in four stages of the agricultural research process – design, testing, dissemination, monitoring and evaluation. Two hundred and thirty individual interviews with women farmers and 16 focus group discussions with men and women farmers were conducted in four Woredas (districts) of Ethiopia. Quantitative data were analysed using binary and multivariate probit models. Qualitative data were analysed using line-by-line coding. The results showed that several empowerment indicator variables significantly (p?≤?.001) influenced women’s participation in different stages of agricultural research. Specifically, input in production decisions, autonomy in plot management, membership to farmer groups, and ability to speak in public enhanced women’s participation in different stages, in addition to access to information and extension services, education and land size. Cultural norms hindered women’s empowerment and engagement in research. To foster sustainable agriculture development, it’s important to integrate holistic and proactive gender perspectives into research strategies to increase women’s participation in farmer research groups, access information and knowledge, have voice and challenge constraining cultural norms and traditions.     

EU Policies on Bioenergy and their Potential Clash with the WTO

The paper outlines EU policy on bioenergy, including biofuels, in the context of its policy initiatives to promote renewable energy to combat greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. The EU’s Member States are responsible for implementing EU policy: thus, the UK’s Renewables Obligation on electricity suppliers and its Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation and road‐fuel tax rebates are examined. It is unlikely that EU policy is in conflict with the WTO Agreement on Agriculture or that on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, but its provisions on environmental sustainability criteria could be problematic.     

President Biden's international trade agenda: Implications for the Canadian agrifood sector

The 4 years of the Trump administration was marked by a number of events and policies that affected the Canadian agrifood sector. Changes to preferential trade agreements, the collapse of the World Trade Organization's dispute settlement framework, increased domestic support for US farmers, and diplomatic tensions between the United States and China all shaped international trade flows and created an environment of policy uncertainty. The Biden administration will change course on several important trade policy issues. We discuss how these changes could affect the Canadian agrifood sector along a number of dimensions, including a return to multilateralism, (re)engagement in preferential trade agreements, and movements toward a less combative and more predictable trade policy agenda. We expect Canadian agrifood trade flows under the Biden administration to exceed what they would have been under a second Trump administration.     

Policy–making in the EU: the bananarama story, the WTO and policy transparency

The EU banana policy is manifestly bad. But despite a healthy policy transparency process and comprehensive public criticisms of its extreme inefficiencies, its costs have been growing progressively worse and more disruptive of international commerce. This raises serious doubts about the WTO process, and the policy transparency process itself. At the very least, the EU bananarama story told here means we should not be complacent about either.     

Old and new partners: Similarity and competition in the EU foreign agri-food trade

This paper analyses the trade relationships among the EU-15 members and some emerging partners: the NMS, Turkey and China. The EU expansion to include 10 new countries has modified quite remarkably the features of agri-food trade in Europe. Some of the NMS, such as Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, significantly contribute to the international agri-food trade and, since the beginning of the process of EU accession, they have modified dramatically the exchanges with the EU-15. More recently, other countries such as Turkey and China have established new relationships with the EU. Turkey is a large Mediterranean country and, as a candidate to the EU accession, enjoys a differential treatment in the agri-food trade relationships with the EU. China can be considered as a new international competitor, growing at faster pace after having joined the WTO and increasing its agri-food trade exchanges with the EU. The analysis will focus on the measurement of the similarity of the agri-food exports of Italy and the remaining EU-15 member States with the new partners entering the EU-15 market. It will be carried out with the support of three different indicators: the export structure similarity index (ES), the product similarity index (PSI) and the quality similarity index (QSI), using the Eurostat database with an eight “digit” merchandize disaggregation and with reference only to agri-food exchanges. Results will indicate that there is little similarity, especially when a comparison is made between the exports of the EU-15 countries to the EU market. Moreover, quality remains a crucial factor for Italian and European agri-food products when competing with external products.     

Country‐Specific Determinants of Horizontal and Vertical Intra‐industry Agri‐food Trade: The Case of the EU New Member States

Intra‐industry trade (IIT) has become a widespread phenomenon with a growing role in international trade, though agricultural trade is usually neglected in empirical works. This article identifies the determinants of horizontal and vertical intra‐industry agri‐food trade between New Member States (NMS) and the EU‐27 in 1999–2010, by applying static and dynamic models with different specifications to panel data. Results show that IIT is mainly of a vertical nature in the NMS, though the majority of NMS export low quality agri‐food products to EU‐27 markets. Factor endowments are negatively related to agri‐food horizontal intra‐industry trade (HIIT), but positively to vertical intra‐industry trade (VIIT). Economic size is positively and significantly related to both types of IIT, while distance and IIT are found to be negatively related in both cases. Results also suggest that HIIT and VIIT are greater if a New Member State exports agri‐food products to another NMS while EU accession has had positive and significant impacts on both HIIT and VIIT, suggesting that economic integration fosters IIT.