Agriculture and international trade. Law, policy and the WTO

Abstract:

Agriculture is the burning issue in the WTO Millennium Round and the Doha Declaration presents enormous difficulties to be overcome. This book seeks to address the legal and policy issues for international agricultural trade arising from the WTO negotiations in the hope that a greater understanding of the complex interactions between law, economics and politics in this contentious area will be achieved.

The work comprises twelve contributions from an impressive array of contributors with differing perspectives. The first chapter presents, by way of introduction, the background to the WTO, international trade and agriculture policy reform covering the Uruguay Round and the Millennium Round, the United States Farm Security and Rural Investment Act 2002 (FSRI), the CAP mid-term review, biotechnology and green box issues. Chapter two looks at market and subsidy disciplines in the Uruguay Round and the rules implementing them. The politics of international agricultural trade are examined in chapter three, whilst chapter four explores the economics of subsidy programmes and international trade. Chapter five examines multifunctionality and non-trade concerns in agriculture, outlining the WTO negotiating positions of the USA, the Cairns Group, the European Communities, Norway and Japan. The multifunctional aspects of agriculture as perceived within the 'European Model of Agriculture' of the European Union are addressed in chapter six.

Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and the impact they have made upon US patent law are discussed in chapter seven with particular emphasis on the protection of intellectual property in biotechnology. Chapter eight examines the intellectual property rights of relevance to agricultural biotechnology and how those rights are dealt with in TRIPS, and asks what role world trade law will play in this field. The differing responses by nation states to the regulation of GM organisms and GMO-derived products are examined in chapter nine. International trade in genetically altered agricultural products and the impact of the Biosafety Protocol are the focus of chapter ten. The changing principles of European agricultural policy from the volume inspired CAP to the sustainable and environmental protection impetus currently being promoted are explored in chapter eleven. The USA regulation of agriculture and the three constituent elements of environment, socio-economic and regulatory are discussed in chapter twelve.

The work will interest scholars, students, policy researchers and makers engaged in the fields of agricultural economics, agricultural policy and the law.