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Doha Declaration and Agriculture in Developing Countries
Developing countries had hoped that the Agreement on Agriculture negotiated as part of the Uruguay Round and signed at Marrakesh in 1994 by 120 countries would open up export markets for their products in the developed countries. In the past six years, however, these countries have found that several asymmetries and inequities in the agreement were not conducive to their interests. These concerns were voiced at several meetings and the WTO was urged time and again to first attend to these implementation issues before widening the scope of the WTO at the Fourth Ministerial Conference. This article discusses the progress reflected in this regard in the Doha declaration.
The share of agriculture in GDP in 1999 was 27 per cent in South Asia; agricultural exports constituted 7.1 per cent of total merchandise exports and agricultural imports accounted for 10.6 per cent of total imports in Asia compared to 10.6 per cent and 6.4 per cent respectively in North America. There has been a steady decline in the share of agriculture in world merchandise trade from 10.5 per cent in 1998 to 9 per cent in 1999 and to 9 per cent in 2000. Food products make up almost 80 per cent of agricultural trade with raw materials being the other main category. The WTO reports that since mid-1980s, trade in processed and other high-value agricultural products has been expanding much faster than trade in basic primary products such as cereals. It is against this backdrop that the Agreement on Agriculture (AOA) was negotiated during the Uruguay Round and signed in 1994 at Marrakesh by 120 countries. The AOA directly deals with agriculture, and Article 14 of this agreement binds members to the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures; two other agreements, viz, the Agreement on Trade related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and the Agreement on Trade in Services have provisions impacting agriculture.
There was great euphoria at the time of signing these agreements , and most of the developing countries hoped that the agreements would open up export markets in developed countries. This was to be achieved by removing the trade distortions already created by the advanced countries; but it should have been realised that it was not a clean slate to write on. During the six year currency of these agreements, developing countries have been disappointed to discover several asymmetries and inequities inherent in the agreements which were not conducive to their trade interests. These concerns were voiced at several meets and the WTO was urged time and again to first attend to these implementation issues before widening the scope of the WTO in the Fourth Ministerial Conference. In what follows, it is proposed to focus on the progress made in this regard in the Doha deliberations with reference to agriculture in developing countries in the light of the implementation concerns raised by them.
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