Wto, Agriculture, and Developing Countries: Lessons from the Indian Experience

by Gulati, Ashok

• ISBN13: 9780896297180
• ISBN10: 0896297187
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-01-07
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr

Summary

The World Trade Organization (WTO) holds the key to a trading environment that levels the playing field for developing countries. But the struggle to bring about that environment has become far more complex after the WTO meetings at Doha, because all trade issues and all details for each trade sector now have to be negotiated as a single package. This broader agenda allows greater flexibility in negotiations, but it makes trade talks dauntingly multidimensional and the outcome less predictable. There are sure to be many years of hard, complicated bargaining ahead. How can developing countries best prepare for the upcoming trade reform negotiations in the context of agriculture -- one of their key sectors? In order to negotiate successfully, they will have to gauge the intentions of other players, anticipate their moves, and devise the best strategic responses. This book will equip policymakers, advisers, and other interested parties with the critical tools for successful WTO negotiation. It provides a historical understanding of protectionism and the underlying motivations for it, demystifies the negotiating process by examining the influence powerful players wielded during the Uruguay Round, assesses the degree to which past trade commitments have been implemented by the major trading nations, draws out the implications of the Agreement on Agriculture for India and other developing countries, and offers strategies that developing countries can use to build a third force that can negotiate effectively with the US and the EC. The book will be of interest both to professionals and the public at large.