Agricultural trade policy made easy: making sense of trade policy for farmers, policymakers and the public

This booklet on agricultural trade policy aims to make sense of the complex concepts and processes of agricultural policy for farmers, policymakers and the public. The booklet highlights that the special ‘language’ and the unnecessarily complicated concepts and positions adopted during negotiations aimed at reducing distortions to trade are a barrier to wide understanding of what trade policy is about.Therefore the booklet aims to demystify some assumptions about trade, in particular in the context of agriculture: people choose to trade because it makes them better off and when trade barriers and trade distorting measures are removed there is more competition and more people become even better off market access is the priority area for these negotiations, for several reasons, and the potential gains from securing more market access are far greater than reductions in either export subsidies or domestic supports there are deep seated views and arguments that have superficial appeal amongst the public for maintaining protectionist policies for agriculture among regions and countries such as the European Union, Japan and the United States it always pays to trade because of comparative advantage, and the task is to convince governments and populations more generally that it is in their own self-interest to reform their own agricultural markets and remove barriers to trade for everyone’s benefit. The booklet also contains a glossary and a number of boxes, charts and tables, aimed at explaining key concepts. They include:comparative advantage how to measure the gains from trade governance in the WTO summary of the Final Act what’s wrong with the WTO domestic support measures: United States dairy industry WTO and ‘unfair’ trade practices.