Agriculture in the Uruguay Round: Interests of Developing Countries

Agriculture has been favored and protected in developed countries while trade policies in developing countries frequently support industry at the expense of exportables and unprotected importables in agriculture. This protection constrains expansion of temperate and subtropical agricultural exports from developing countries. Several studies have estimated the effects of liberalization of trade restrictions on world prices, export earnings, and import costs. While developing countries generally would benefit from having the agricultural policies of the most powerful countries bound by international rules on trade, there are differences among the developing countries as to which products should be liberalized. Even if such conflicts did not exist, politically feasible means to obtain such compliance are elusive. The potentially most feasible approaches for developing countries to obtain some measure of liberalization in the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations are discussed.