Agreement on Agriculture in the Uruguay Round of GATT, The

The Uruguay Round is the eighth round of multilateral trade negotiations (MTN) under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The previous seven rounds produced significant reductions in tariffs on manufactured goods, but little or no progress was made in opening international markets for agricultural trade (see Appendix A0. However, the distortions in international agricultural trade and domestic agricultural production and the increasing budgetary outlays prompted trade ministers to consider the reform of agricultural trade as a central point in the GATT negotiating agenda established at Punta del Este, Uruguay, in 1986. This paper provides an overview of the recently concluded Agreement on Agriculture on the Uruguay Round of the GATT. Specifically, this overview discusses key elements of the agreement (market access, domestic support, and export competition); the nature of exemption available to developing countries; exceptions from the general rules; potential opportunities available for countries such as Egypt; and world price impacts of implementing the agreement.