Contents: The Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture, The Uruguay Round and Agriculture Reform, Opening Markets for Agriculture, The Future of Agricultural Trade, WTO Agricultural Negotiations, Developing Countries and the WTO Agricultural Negotiations, Export Subsidies, Market Access, The WTO is Born, The Marrakesh Declaration, What is the WTO?, Overview of WTO s First Year, Overview of WTO s First Two Years, The WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism, WTO Negotiations on Basic Telecommunications, New Agenda of the WTO, Beyond the Uruguay Round, The Uruguay Round, Developing Countries and the Uruguay Round, The WTO and the Developing Countries, The Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (Trips) Agreement and the Developing Countries, International Trade with the Consumer s Money, WTO Has Delivered , Developing Countries After the Uruguay Round, Africa to Gain More, Defining the Singapore Message to WTO, Is Copyright on the Wrong Track?, Give Developing Countries A More Favourable Deal, High World Trade Growth Vs. Output, Winners and Losers, Trading Towards Peace, Trade and Labour Standards, Free Trade as Pacemaker, Population Gro

Developing countries have a major stake in the outcome of trade negotiations conducted under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO). 'Agriculture and the WTO: Creating a Trading System for Development' explores the key issues and options in agricultural trade liberalization from the perspective of these developing countries. Leading experts in trade and agriculture from both developed and developing countries provide key research findings and policy analyses on a range of issues that includes market access, domestic support, export competition, quota administration methods, food security, biotechnology, intellectual property rights, and agricultural trade under the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture. Material is covered in summary and in comprehensive detail with supporting data, a substantial bibliography, and listings of online resources. This book will be of interest to policymakers and analysts in the fields of development economics and commodities pricing and trade.

The volume offers to the reader a multi-faceted dialogue between noted experts from two major agricultural countries, both founding members of the Word Trade Organisation, each one with different stakes in the great globalisation game. After providing the recent historical background of agricultural policies in India and France, the contributors address burning issues related to market and regulation, food security and food safety, the expected benefits from the WTO and the genuine problems raised by the new forms of international trade in agriculture, including the sensitive question of intellectual property rights in bio-technologies. This informed volume underlines the necessity of moving beyond the North-South divide, in order to address the real challenges of the future.

Despite the Doha declaration of November 2001, the failure to start a new round of global trade negotiations at Seattle in December 1999 and the hostility of protesters to the trade liberalization process and growing global economic and social disparities was a wake-up call for the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The ambitious goal of this ground-breaking book is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of liberalized world trade, in particular in the agricultural sector, and to investigate to what extent the current WTO agreements provide the necessary fail-safe devices to react to trade-related negative impacts on sustainability, environmental protection and food security. The background and interrelationship between the WTO, the tenets of sustainable development and the unique features of the agriculture and forestry sectors are explored, and conclusions regarding the deficits of the world trade system and its conflicts with basic societal goals – such as sustainability – are drawn. Agriculture and forestry have a particular affinity with what the authors call "strong sustainability" and are to be among the major agenda items in forthcoming WTO negotiations. The book proposes that sustainable agricultural production techniques such as integrated and organic farming provide a series of related services to community and environment which could be severely prejudiced by wholesale trade liberalization and the imposition of the large-scale production methods of the mega-trade giants of the USA and Europe. And yet the concept of sustainability is referred to only tangentially in the existing WTO agenda. The WTO, Agriculture and Sustainable Development argues that, without a formal recognition of this failing, the premise that free trade is inherently advantageous for all countries is a falsehood. Further, unfettered liberalization is unsustainable and a social and environmental multilateral framework must be agreed to reinterpret or adapt a host of WTO regulations that are at odds with sustainable development. The core problem is that, under the current system, import duties can only be differentiated by direct goods and services and not by their means of production – sustainable or otherwise. Therefore, a range of environmental policy measures in the agricultural sector, such as the consideration of product life-cycles, the internalization of external costs and a coupling of trade liberalization with ecological obligations are proposed by the authors. In addition, they argue that unsustainable economic short-termism must be curbed and the use of the stick of trade sanctions and the carrot of financial benefits for good environmental performance be permitted to promote sustainable agricultural practices. This book will contribute greatly in addressing the lack of basic theoretical arguments at the intersection between trade and sustainable development – a failing that has already been bemoaned by trade policy-makers. It is highly recommended reading for all those involved or interested in the WTO negotiations, whether from multilateral organizations, governments, industry or civil society.

Many people still think first of economic growth in relation to poverty reduction. Indeed, their correlation is one of the mostdiscussed issues of combating poverty. The relationship is of great importance because if there is a clear causal dependency, reducing poverty could fundamentally be limited to measures to promote growth. However, if there was low growth or stagnation it would not be possible to reduce poverty decisively. In the opposite case, that of the phenomena having no causal relation, promising measures to reduce poverty could be taken up even without economic growth. Hardly anyone now explicitly expresses the view that economic development trickles down automatically to the poor. Practical experience has refuted this assumption dating from the early days of development policy in the 1960s. However, a number of studies show development of growth and a decline in poverty running parallel. On the other hand, there are also examples which show that despite high economic growth poverty is not reduced markedly. The common answer to the question this raises is thus: Yes, growth can reduce poverty, but only if additional measures oriented on the poor are taken up. This is often termed pro-poor-growth. But what that means in detail and whether economic growth as such plays a causal role at all, is not clarified. It is worth taking a look at the arguments on the basis of more recent empirical and theoretical knowledge. Among the many indicators of poverty, the income of the poor (income poverty) has the closest relationship to economic growth. An increase in gross domestic product and thus national income could, if other factors come into play be linked with an increase in the per capita income of the poor.

This book gives an in-depth analysis of the various facets of international trade, and its regulations by the World Trade Organisation. In addition, it discusses the Multilateral Trade Agreements under the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations. This edition discusses the development and issues relating to globalization of the economy, trade and the expanding role of WTO.

Publisher Description

This book is devoted to the complex relationship between the global trading system and food security, focusing on two important elements: the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) and how food price volatility can be managed, or not, through trade instruments. The first section of the book is based on the premise that more trade integration can fight poverty and alleviate hunger. The second section examines whether managing price volatility is doable through more or less trade integration. This section deals in particular with policy instruments available for policy makers to cope with price volatility: food stocks, crop insurance, and export restrictions. Analysis concludes that without a strong and efficient World Trade Organization (WTO) capable of conducting ambitious trade negotiations, the food security target will be much more difficult to hit.

There has been rapid progress in nanoscience over the last few years, particularly in the area of miniaturization. The present title Encyclopaedia of Nanoscience is the first scientifically detailed description of developments that will revolutionize most of the industrial processes and products currently in use. This ground breaking work draws on physics and chemistry to establish basic concepts and analytical tools and thus only it provides an indispensable introduction to the emerging field of Nanoscience, Scientific research is the ultimate tool in pushing forward the limit of understanding. But, as with any tool, research is only powerful if used properly, and to its full effects. The more we learn, the more we discover connections threading through biochemical and biophysical world. In writing this Encyclopaedia the author has made every effort to present these connections in a way that will help first time students of Nanoscience understand the subject and how very relevant it is to their lives. Volume Details: 1. Advanced Nanotechnology; 2. Progress in Nanotechnology; 3. Molecular Nanomachines; 4. Potentials of Nanotechnology; 5. Modern Concepts in Nanotechnology.