Question

. What topics should be at the heart of the negotiations to reform the Agreement on Agriculture? What are the three pillars of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture? How does the WTO classify subsidies, define and describe in detail?

Answer 1

The WTO negotiated the Agreement on Agriculture during the Uruguay round on the general agreement of trade and tariffs along with the establishment of WTO on 1st January, 1995. The norm was to replace price support by direct payment to farmers back in 1950s; it was based on agriculture protectionism, variation in comodity prices and disbalance between export earnings and import demand.

The three pillars of WTO agreement on agriculture are; first, domestic support which implies categorizing subsidies into three boxes; amber, blue and green. Second, market access implies truncation of tariff and non tariff barriers to trade. Third, export subsidies required that developed countries should reduce export subsidies whereas for developing countries the proportion of reduction was much lesser.