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This collection of essays provides the definitive survey of the importance of agricultural reform to the future of the world's trading system. There is growing consensus concerning the need to reduce the level of subsidies in agriculture and to open up the markets of the developed world more to the farmers of the developing world. However, while non-governmental organizations such as Oxfam may agree on this point with free trade economists, governments in Europe and the U.S. seem reluctant to give up their protectionist habits.
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Agriculture and the New Trade Agenda Negotiating the liberalization of world agricultural trade in the World Trade Organization (WTO) is fraught with difficulty owing to the complexity of the issues and the wide range of interests across countries. In the new round of global trade negotiations under the WTO, different perspectives on trade reform have produced a highly contentious agenda. These issues are addressed from a range of perspectives in this very topical survey of the new trade agenda and its implications for both developing and developed countries. Agricultural trade specialists, including those in universities, in international organizations, and in think tanks, analyze a comprehensive range of topics including interests and options in the new WTO trade negotiations, the new trade agenda from a development patent perspective, new WTO trade rules, trade barriers, tariff negotiations and patent protection for developing countries. m e r l i n d a d . i n g c o is a Senior Economist at the World Bank. Specializing in empirical and policy analyses, her published books and journal articles cover areas such as non-tariff barriers, agricultural protection, agricultural trade and poverty, commodity markets, food security, and trade. She is the author of The World Food Outlook (with Donald Mitchell and Ronald Duncan, Cambridge University Press, 1997). l . a l a n w i n t e r s is Professor of Economics at the University of Sussex. He is a Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, London, and a Senior Visiting Fellow of the Centre for Economic Performance, at the London School of Economics. His published books and articles cover areas such as regional trading arrangements, non-tariff barriers, European Integration, East–West trade, global warming, agricultural protection, trade and poverty, and the world trading system. He is the author of a major study funded by the UK Department of International Development: Trade Liberalization and Poverty: A Handbook (with Neil McCulloch and Xavier Cirera, 2001). Agriculture and the New Trade Agenda Creating a Global Trading Environment for Development Edited by M ERL I N DA D . I N G C O A N D L . ALA N WI N TER S CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521826853 © WORLD BANK, 2004 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2004 This digitally printed version 2008 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Agriculture and the new trade agenda : creating a global trading environment for development/M.D. Ingco and L. Alan Winters, editors. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-521-82685-3 1. World Trade Organization. 2. Produce trade – Government policy – International cooperation. 3. Tariff on farm prod