The agricultural trade developments of major WTO players

Total world trade in agricultural and food products, measured by exports, approached a record 370 billion dollars in 2004, an 85% increase since the 1996 level of 200 billion dollars. From this world total of agricultural exports, 70% is accounted for by 9 WTO players, divided in two groups. The first group includes major traders, countries or regions that are not only major exporters, but also major importers, such as the EU, the US, Canada, China and India.

The second group includes the traditional main exporters, such as Brazil, Australia, Argentina and New Zealand, which run significant and growing surpluses in their agricultural trade balance. This newsletter looks into the evolution of agricultural trade of these 9 players, as well as developments in some other important importers, to highlight trends over the last ten years.

The related url links to you to a related MAP Brief, 'Composition of agricultural trade of major WTO players'. This describes the composition of trade flows of the 10 major WTO players, in three broad categories: commodities, intermediate and high value products.

European Commission: DG Agriculture and Rural Development: MAP Brief, July 2006: Composition of agricultural trade of major WTO players http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/publi/map/brief6.pdf

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