Australian Financial Review | February 26, 1999 | By Brendan Pearson
As WTO members prepare for the resumption of global farm trade talks, a Federal Government study has found measures agreed in the last round of negotiations resulted in "higher actual or potential barriers to trade than previously existed."
The findings were included in a study, WTO Agricultural Negotiations: Important Market Access Issues, released by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE) yesterday.
The ABARE study analysed the impact of various farm sector liberalisation measures adopted during the Uruguay Round of negotiations, which concluded in 1994.
The study found that the Uruguay Round talks, the first to tackle agricultural trade barriers, had resulted in only small gains in market access.
It says some measures designed to increase market access had had the opposite impact.
"The process of tariffication has, in some instances, resulted in higher actual or potential barriers to trade than previously existed," it says.
The study also found that various approaches to the "administration" of other measures, including tariff quotas, had also limited expected market access gains.
The study argues that a "systemic" approach will be necessary to guarantee improved market access in forthcoming negotiations.
ABARE warned that in addition to traditional market access issues, a range of other issues would become important elements in the negotiations, including food safety measures, the role of State trading enterprises, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and labour and environment standards.
The study notes that trade in GMOs is an emerging issue with potential significance for farm trade.
The degree of product differentiation for GMOs raised concerns about the adequacy of present WTO rules, the report says. Concerns could also emerge about the exercise of market power by multinational corporations holding patents for GMOs.
"For example, a multinational corporation with sole selling rights could discriminate in pricing or delivery of GMO seed or animal genetic material between countries, resulting in fundamental and potentially discriminatory changes in the relative efficiencies of agriculture between countries," it says.
ABARE also suggested that the introduction of labour and environment standards could have a "large impact on effective market access."
These measures could increase compliance costs associated with exporting, through additional certification or the need to adjust production methods, as well as through abuse as potential non-tariff barriers.
ABARE said it was both likely and appropriate that greater attention be paid to processed agricultural products in the forthcoming negotiations, while warning that problems of definition could mean that coverage was "less than desirable."Australian Financial Review:
