Source: Carnegie
ISSUE BRIEF
Global Policy
Program
November 2002
Liberalizing Agricultural Trade and Developing Countries
By David Orden, Rashid S. Kaukab, and Eugenio Diaz-Bonilla
Summary
A diverse group of development and trade liberalization advocates agree that
reduction of agricultural protection and subsidization in the world's wealthy
countries is necessary to strengthen both international growth opportunities
and the global trade regime. According to the consensus reached among participants
attending a conference cosponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace and the Cordell Hull Institute, WTO Doha Round negotiations on agriculture
should compel policy change in industrialized countries to limit trade-distorting
domestic subsidies for agricultural products, lower tariffs, increase market
access, and eliminate export subsidies. In response to temporary hardships caused
by an overall reduction in agriculture support, governments should have the
flexibility to adopt temporary or limited domestic, and perhaps international,
compensatory policies. Significant differences in perspective and policy prescriptions
were expressed by conference participants about the appropriate speed and scope
of agricultural liberalization in developing countries, especially if progress
is not made toward reduced support for agriculture in developed countries.
About the Authors
David Orden is Professor of Agricultural and Applied Economics at Virginia Polytechnic
Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. Rashid S. Kaukab is
Director of the Trade Unit at the South Centre in Geneva, Switzerland. Eugenio
Diaz-Bonilla is Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research
Institute in Washington, D.C.