Agricultural Trade Reform and the Doha Development Agenda

Abstract

Multilateral trade negotiations in the WTO under the Doha Development Agenda, often called the Doha Round, were suspended at the end of July 2006 because of the failure to reach an agreement on Modalities, especially on market access and domestic support (DS) for agricultural products. Although leading WTO members have emphasised their commitment to continue negotiations, a significant delay of any conclusion seems very likely. These developments contribute to the timeliness of this World Bank publication, which is also a political input for the negotiations at a critical stage, offering analyses of negotiations and the impact of their potential conclusion based on the Framework Agreement reached in August 2004. The analyses reported are based to a large extent on the most recent state of negotiations. After a summary of key results by the editors, the book contains eleven chapters authored by different researchers. Many cross-references between chapters exist, which adds value to the collective publication of papers. Two chapters analyse the general impact of various liberalisation scenarios based on computable general equilibrium (CGE) models. Other chapters offer an overview of the development of agricultural policies, an analysis of the state of negotiations and options for Special and Differential Treatment (SDT) of developing countries, and a case study on cotton. The rest of the volume can be classified according to the three pillars of the negotiations: three chapters on market access, two on domestic support (DS) and one on export competition. The focus on market access is well chosen as this has been the most contentious issue in the negotiations, with the most complex set of parameters to negotiate and the largest effect on production and trade, a point made in the chapter by Hertel and Keeney. In light of this volume's explicit focus on developing countries, some discussion of the links between trade liberalisation, the associated positive welfare effects derived from simulation models and economic development, would have been appropriate. Such a discussion would involve aspects of domestic institutions and income distribution that are largely neglected in this volume, although available elsewhere (see e.g. Hertel and Winters, 2006 ).