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.     

Combining Risk Assessment and Economics in Managing a Sanitary–Phytosanitary Risk

The Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures provides guidelines for countries to protect domestic production from pests and diseases. The guidelines permit consideration of consumer welfare. We find an optimal set of SPS measures considering total welfare and mitigation strategies. Our model suggests that it is optimal and less restrictive to apply mitigation strategies first and then an additional smaller tariff if necessary. Relative cost of mitigation determines the amount of the mitigation strategies applied in the importing and exporting countries.     

制糖企业与糖料农户之间交易关系研究

本文从交易方式的角度，通过对糖料加工企业和原料采购市场结构的分析，探讨制糖企业与农户上下游部门间的协调机制对整个产业链竞争能力的影响。研究发现，糖料划区收购使得糖厂具有地域垄断特征，农户在交易中处于不利的地位。目前采用的订单糖料生产形式，在一定程度上较好地协调了两者的关系。但由于订单合约的不完全性，双方市场风险依然很高，都具有机会主义倾向，专用性资产投资不足。在交易成本很高的情况下，制糖企业不会实行一体化形式提高企业竞争力。     

入世对我国矿业经济发展的影响及对策

文章从分析加入世贸组织后中国矿业经济面临的机遇和挑战入手 ,指出了中国矿业经济在跨国经营、企业规模、后备资源、资金和税赋、矿管秩序和矿业法律、资源开发和环境保护等方面存在的问题。并针对这些问题 ,提出了制定矿业经济发展战略、促进矿业企业上市融资、减免矿业企业税赋、利用国外资金资源 ,合理开发利用矿产资源、实行矿产品出口配额制度和许可证制度等项措施建议。     

Is the European Union protecting soil? A critical analysis of Community environmental policy and law

Although preserving soil health is essential for sustainability, over the last decade, there has been a significant increase in soil degradation in the European Union (EU) and, based on available information, this trend will not reverse in the long run. While the Union has adopted ambitious policy objectives addressing soil threats, there is not to date an EU soil-specific legislation, but various aspects of soil protection are scattered across many EU policy areas. This paper contributes to evaluating the status of soil protection within the EU environmental legislation, by creating an inventory of the relevant provisions and analyzing their features. It emerges that soil threats are not comprehensively regulated by the EU legislator and soil protection looks like the by-product of several provisions which mainly set preventive, qualitative and non strictly binding measures.     

国际贸易中的技术性壁垒及我国对策

二十一世纪是全球经济一体化的知识时代 ,科学的巨大变革已经渗透于人类社会的方方面面 ,而国际贸易中的技术性壁垒则体现了贸易保护主义与科技相结合的作用。并且 ,这种非关税壁垒形式以其正义的外衣、巨大的影响力和借助科技的快速发展越来越成为国际贸易中不可忽视的保护手段。中国作为世界贸易组织的新成员更应在这方面进行研究 ,并制定相应的战略。     

对欧盟农产品自愿性标准的解析

欧盟的农产品标准网络十分庞大而复杂,其中自愿性标准由于具有内容广泛、标准更严格灵活、具有事实上的强制力等特点,配合上欧盟本已十分复杂的农产品立法,为欧盟的农产品市场提供了有力的双重保护网络。与强制性标准比较,自愿性标准给农产品生产商和出口商带来更大的成本负担,并且由于其草根背景,反而更具隐蔽性,加之游离于WTO多边贸易谈判体制的管束,应对自愿性标准相对更加困难。因此欧盟的自愿性标准非常值得引起重视。     

An Analysis of Standards‐based Regulation in the EU Organic Sector, 1991–2007

Against the background of a discussion of recent analyses of capitalist subsumption of agriculture and of neo‐liberalism, the paper uses a ‘liberal governmentality’ framework to trace the development of the EU Regulation on organic agriculture from its adoption in 1991 to its recent repeal and replacement in 2007. The central argument is that regulatory development took the form of a cycle of elaboration, tightening, increasing deviation and finally a ‘return to principles’ in order to reduce deviation. At different stages in this cycle, different groups of ‘stakeholders’, including experts, were influential. Likewise, different forms of expertise became dominant or were sidelined. Meanwhile, ‘capital’ in its different incarnations remained marginal throughout. The paper leaves open the questions of the generalizability of this analysis to regulatory arenas other than the EU, as well as to regulatory objects more central than organic agriculture to capitalist accumulation.     

Farm-based modelling of the EU sugar reform: impact on Belgian sugar beet suppliers

A mathematical programming model, calibrated on individual farmdata, is used to analyse the reform of the common market organisation(CMO) in the sugar sector of the European Union. The model includesa precautionary farm supply function for out-of-quota sugarbeet that is estimated as part of a simultaneous system of first-orderconditions. Simulation results from a sample of Belgian sugarbeet farms show that the sugar CMO reform induces differentsupply and income effects across farms depending on their shareof out-of-quota sugar beet relative to their total beet supplyand their quota rent. A further cut in the minimum price ofsugar beet initiates structural change in the farm sector.