Delivering on Doha
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Research Topics
CGD Expert
Opinions
- Delivering on Doha: Why Agriculture Matters
- Trade Talks Collapse: Who's to Blame and What Next?
- A Hong Kong Declaration
- Doha Prospects: Q&A with Kimberly Elliott
Articles
- Reviving Doha? Time for the U.S. to Lead
- Trade Talks Collapse: Who's to Blame and What Next?
- Poor Nations Are Still Waiting for U.S.-European Trade Accord [NYT]
- Ending Aid to Rich Farmers May Hurt the Poor Ones [NYT]
- World Bank Reconsiders Trade's Benefits to Poor [WaPo]
- Delivering on the Doha Development Agenda: Is Agriculture the Key?
- Delivering on Doha
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Kimberly Elliott
11/14/2005
Liberalization of agricultural markets in rich countries is the linchpin for a successful conclusion to the Doha Round of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations. Rich countries highest barriers to trade are in agriculture, and an easing of these barriers is a major demand of developing countries.
Trade negotiations committed to promoting economic development and poverty reduction also cannot ignore agriculture when more than half the people in developing countries and 70 percent of the poor live in rural areas. Lack of market access is one key barrier under discussion in these negotiations.
But reductions in trade-distorting subsidies also are important for certain countries and commodities, notably poor cotton farmers in West Africa. Subsidy cuts are also politically necessary to achieve a balanced outcome in the negotiations.
In early October 2005, US Trade Representative Robert Portman and EU negotiators proposed differing approaches to addressing these problems. This brief describes how the WTO approaches agricultural trade barriers and domestic subsidies and evaluates the recent US and EU proposals. It then points the way towards a successful outcome for the Doha Round, an outcome that is far from certain given the offers currently on the table.