Wto Agriculture Agreement Upsc

The agricultural agreement is based on three pillars: domestic support, market access and export subsidies. This 8th round of multilateral negotiations began in 1986 and continued until 1994. Uruguay`s round of negotiations covered more topics and involved more countries than any previous round. This includes reducing tariffs on industrial products by more than a third on average, gradually liberalizing trade in agricultural products, and creating a new body, the World Trade Organization, which facilitates both the implementation of multilateral trade agreements and will serve as a forum for future negotiations. This principle of “national treatment” (giving others the same treatment as its own nationals) is also reflected in the three main WTO agreements (Article 3 of the GATT, Article 17 of the GATS and Article 3 of the TRIPS Agreement). The agreement covers market access, reduction of export subsidies and government subsidies for agricultural products. In addition, there was a consensus on preventing the appropriation of traditional knowledge about developing countries by Western companies actively protesting against the EU-US project on agriculture with other developing countries. On the other hand, India and China participate in and lead negotiations on the Comprehensive Regional Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP). This agreement should reflect the interests of developing countries in its final draft. The agreement prohibits the host country from discriminating against foreign investment in relation to domestic investment, i.e. the agreement requires that investments be freely authorized by nations.

The United States is invited by the EU and developing countries, led by Brazil and India, to make a more generous offer to reduce trade-distorting domestic aid to agriculture. The United States insists that the EU and developing countries agree on a greater reduction in tariffs and a limit on the number of import-sensitive and special products (Aoa) products that would be exempt from reductions. Import-sensitive products are of the utmost importance to industrialized countries such as the European Union, while developing countries deal with specific products – those that, for reasons of development, food security or a living wage, are exempt from both tariff reductions and subsidies. Brazil highlighted the reduction in trade-distorting domestic subsidies, particularly by the United States (some of which have been successfully challenged in the WTO cotton dispute between the United States and Brazil), while India has insisted on a large number of special products that would not be subject to wider market opening. The Association of Southeast Asian Countries (ASEAN), the European Union, the North American Union, etc., are some associations that allow other member countries more liberal and fluid access to member markets. This goes against the objectives of the WTO, which aims to create a rules-based global trading system with minimal barriers. However, it is almost impossible to accept a common trading system for so many different countries at different stages of socio-economic development. As a result, countries come together with a group of like-minded countries and aspire to a symbiotic agreement that guarantees a win-win agreement for all participants. But the United States avoids this provision with its export credit guarantee program. In doing so, the U.S. government provides subsidized loans to the purchaser of U.S.

agricultural products that will be repaid for long periods of time.

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