What Future for the Agreement on Agriculture?

Name: Professor’s name: Course: Date: What Future for the Agreement on Agriculture? Introduction The agricultural sector plays a significant role in the economic structures of most countries around the world. It is an essential element of the global economy as witnessed by its inclusion in all the major trading forums and organizations around the world. Negotiations at the World Trade Organization on the promotion of free-market economy for all its member countries often include an extensive analysis of the agricultural sector CITATION WTO19 \l 1033 (WTO). The different economic levels for all countries involved in the trade negations at both the regional and global platforms form or rather challenge the development and implementation of standard regulatory policies for the agricultural sector. The developing countries, for instance, tend to rely on their agricultural sectors as the key drivers of their economic growth. Food production in such countries is at the forefront of creating employment for its citizens as well as being one of the main sources of generating revenue for the countries’ overall development needsCITATION Con01 \l 1033 (International). The developed countries, on the other hand, tend to rely on other industries for sustainable growth and development of their economies. Consequently, such countries do not share the same concern for food production as the developing and third world countries. It is for the outlined reasons that negotiations and subsequent trade agreements concerning the agricultural sector may have equally distinct effects on the same. The World Trade Organization agreement to reduce agricultural trade distortions dubbed Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (URAA) and recent reviews on the same have significant impacts on agriculture. An analysis of some of the impacts of the WTO agreements on agricultural trade creates a perspective on the future direction of agriculture across the global economic divide. The 1994 Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (URAA) settled for the regulation of agricultural trade and food markets through the reduction of distortionary measures to promote the agricultural sector by member states (Swinnen, pg. 1090). The agreement focused on reducing the impact of interventional measures taken by governments to safeguard their agricultural industries on the overall global economy. According to the World Trade Organization, unregulated interventional measures by governments of member states pose a challenge towards the achievement of the objectives of the free market economy CITATION WTO19 \l 1033 (WTO). The influence of state factors through the interventional measures taken to support the agricultural sector contradicted the key principle of the free-market economy, which limits government interference with the market dynamics. The government interventional measures towards supporting agriculture take the form of market price support, agricultural input subsidies, making of direct payments to farmers and other agricultural institutions (Swinnen, pg. 1090). Th...