Thesis (MScAgric (Agricultural Economics)--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / The Doha Round of negotiations on the liberalisation of agricultural trade inherited complications
from its predecessor - the Uruguay Round (UR). It needs to be noted, as one of the fundamental
differences, that agriculture sectors in the developed countries of the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD) get support from their governments. In contrast to the
situation, in the developing countries, agriculture is taxed to generate government revenue. The
subsidies that farmers receive in the developed countries affect farmers globally through world
prices (world prices depression). Therefore protection and greater subsidies should be not
encouraged. As such, after a long time of preferential treatment, agriculture trade was tabled as a
separate issue of negotiations at the UR and resulted to the round to be prolonged. However, one of
the achievements of the UR was imposing of bound tariffs on agricultural products and determining
tariff equivalence for non-tariff measures. Then, the Doha Round (DR) also known as the Doha
Development Agenda (DDA) which is the first round to place development and focus strongly on
agricultural liberalisation as a tool for development.
International trade theory supports agricultural liberalisation, as negotiated in the DDA. Therefore,
the DDA, in seeking more liberalised agricultural markets, continues a theoretically sound
approach, as in the UR. The effects of liberalising agricultural trade in the DDA will differ across
countries, whereas some will gain, others may loose, and the same situation is true for different
sectors within an economy. The focus of the DDA on agriculture, as a tool of development, links
well to the fact that agriculture in the developing countries accounts for a substantial share of their
gross domestic products (GDPs) and exports. This situation, therefore, calls for a closer
consideration of the possible impact of agricultural liberalisation in South Africa even though
agricultural share of GDP is less than 4 percent.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:sun/oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/1734 |
| Date | 03 1900 |
| Creators | Nyhodo, Bonani |
| Contributors | Vink, Nick, University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Agrisciences. Dept. of Agricultural Economics. |
| Publisher | Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | University of Stellenbosch |
Page generated in 0.0023 seconds