Analysis of the potential impact of the current WTO agricultural negotiations on government strategies in the SADC region
2006
J. Hodge | A.J.E. Charman
This study identifies how the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) could potentially constrain government action to achieve food security in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The main focus is on the potential direct effects of the AoA, in terms of proposed reductions to domestic subsidies and tariffs, on food security policy in SADC countries.The paper discusses:the Agreement on Agriculture under negotiation at the WTOpotential constraints on agriculture subsidies in SADCpotential constraints on market access in SADC.The paper concludes that the proposed modalities in the current WTO round are unlikely to restrict SADC policies to enhance and assure food availability, access and security. The paper argues that:the low levels of domestic support and high bound tariffs ensure that agreed reductions would still leave members with sufficient policy space to pursue food security agriculture developmentthe most worrying scenario would be the setting of a low maximum tariff, which would remove protection from international dumping on fragile food crop marketsmembers of SADC have scope for reducing irrelevant tariffs and while retaining flexibility in key areas.
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