WTO and Global Agricultural Trade Policies: Philosophy, Practice, Effects and Vision

Competition among the nations is the biggest problem within the international trading system. WTO
deals with the rules of trade among countries and plays an important role for supporting global
economic development. Trade policy refers to a frame of rules and regulations concerning the
exchange of goods globally. Tariffs, quotas, and export import regulations are some of the WTO trade
policies. CAGR formulae, Delphi survey method and meta-analysis were used for analysis. The study
analyzed the WTO agricultural trade policies, percentage of agricultural exports and imports in the
total merchandise trade, trends, elasticity’s, growth rate and instability across the continents. The
study also analyzed the effect of WTO and different countries trade policies effects on global economy
in general and agriculture in particular and future vision. The study analyzed the importance of WTO
trade policies in the global agriculture trade. Favorable trade in the agricultural products had been
noticed in the European and American continents whereas the negative trade balance has been
noticed in the Asian and African continent. Total merchandise trade was found to be high in the Asian
continent due to the existence of highly populated countries such as China and India. Europe
exported and imported more agricultural products in the world. African agricultural trade was very poor
than other continents. Agricultural exports growth rate was higher than imports in the Asia but reverse
trend was seen in other continents. Stability has been found in the agricultural trade in all continents.
The exports price elasticity of agricultural products in Europe was marginally higher than imports.
Agricultural commodities trade was shown negative growth in the Brazil and Argentina of the
American continent and Angola of the African continent. USA and China imposed high tariff rates,
which affect the whole global economy. WTO members discussed regarding elimination of export
subsidies. Global agricultural trade polices of different countries shows that different countries
adopted the different agricultural policies and strategies to protect their domestic trades and protection
of local farmers. Governments should encourage precision farming and advanced greenhouse
technologies in the African continent. WTO helped to protect the producers, consumers and multistake
holders by balancing the trade policies. WTO has to take an action for balancing the trade
smoothly and freely. Integration, equality and co-ordination among the member countries are very
important factors to take up any decision on WTO trade policies. This study used for policy makers,
decision makers, producers, consumers and multi-stake holders.