No. 4 - Agriculture and the WTO: Subsidies in the Cross Hairs

September 2003 saw trade talks pursuing the Doha Development Agenda at the Cancún WTO Ministerial Meeting collapse, primarily over the disagreements between rich and developing countries regarding agriculture. Despite the great pessimism that ensued, on August 1, 2004, WTO negotiators from 147 countries announced a breakthrough in negotiations to liberalize trade in agricultural products. The most striking aspect of this new framework agreement is the proposed elimination of agricultural subsidies by rich countries in return for developing countries opening up their markets to more imports. At the same time, WTO dispute resolution panels have delivered stunning decisions against the U.S. cotton subsidy program and the European Union\u27s sugar subsidies. Clearly agriculture trade policy will be a pivotal issue determining the failure or success of the Doha round. This conference featured noted experts from senior levels of government, the private sector, and the legal profession addressing current developments in multilateral negotiations and the WTO cases on agriculture and analyzing their impact on the future of the world agricultural market. It was presented on November 16, 2004, at the University of Georgia School of Law by the Dean Rusk Center–International, Comparative, and Graduate Legal Studies and the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

THE STRATEGIC USE OF ANTI-DUMPING IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE

Although anti-dumping duties are the official countermeasure to the unfair trading practice known as injurious dumping, it is alleged that in some cases anti-dumping duties are being used to protect certain strategic industries against competitive rather than dumped imports. Although conventional economic wisdom is against such protectionism, some economists argue that certain sensitive and strategic industries may need to be protected against competitive imports even at the cost of economic welfare. This paper argues that more attention should be paid to those strategic industries to establish what is really happening in these industries, while less time and effort should be spent trying to change the Anti-dumping Agreement. Copyright (c) 2006 The Author. Journal compilation (c) 2006 Economic Society of South Africa.