World Trade Order and Agricultural Transformation in Africa-super- †

The poor production and trade performance of African agriculture is well documented in the literature but its transformation has received much less attention. The declining shares of African agriculture in GDP, total exports and employment constitute evidence of stagnation. Its growth and transformation are affected by key elements of the world trade order; such as agricultural domestic supports, export subsidies and non-tariff barriers of the OECD countries, emerging global system of intellectual property protection and the increasing corporate concentration of the international markets for agricultural products. Only the negotiations on the elimination of agricultural export subsidies have made relatively more progress at the Doha Development Round of multilateral trade negotiations, while African negotiators cannot significantly alter current world opinion regarding global intellectual property protection system. Therefore, the solution of the former issues lies in investing significant negotiating capital while adaptation and adjustment would resolve the latter. Hence, Africa must find innovative ways of enhancing its agricultural research and technology capacity by creating suitable linkages with the global system. Finally, though the problems related to non-competitive business practices can be resolved at the international level through appropriate forum, African countries should seek a deeper understanding of the issues as a basis for articulating the way forward. Copyright The author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Centre for the Study of African Economies. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org, Oxford University Press.