The road from Doha to Hong Kong in the WTO agricultural negotiations: a developing country perspective

Developing countries have both offensive and defensive interests in the Doha Round of WTO trade negotiations. This paper discusses the extent to which these interests have been addressed in the July 2004 Framework Agreement and in the subsequent negotiations. Many of the key demands of developing countries appear to have been accepted in principle in the Agreement, but the lack of specific details on how most of these principles will be operationalised makes it hard to evaluate their real significance. Progress is needed on the development dimension of the negotiations if the Hong Kong Ministerial Council meeting is to succeed.