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2 - Agricultural liberalisation, multifunctionality and the WTO: competing agendas for the future of farmed landscapes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Clive Potter
Edited by
Jørgen Primdahl  and
Simon Swaffield
Jørgen Primdahl
Affiliation:
University of Copenhagen
Simon Swaffield
Affiliation:
Lincoln University, New Zealand
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Summary

Introduction

The international policy context is becoming increasingly important in any discussion of farmland sustainability and landscape change. In particular, the infrastructure of trade rules, subsidy codes and dispute settlement procedures overseen by the World Trade Organization (WTO) means that the governance of agriculture is ever more an international concern. The Agreement on Agriculture which concluded the Uruguay Trade Round in 1993, for instance, set boundaries on what national governments can do in terms of offering subsidies to farmers, and we have seen changes in the level and pattern of farm support in industrialised countries that have been a direct response to the politics of international trade (Higgins and Lawrence, 2005; Peine and McMichael, 2005). The latest round of trade talks under the Doha round, launched in 2001, continues this process of internationalisation, requiring negotiators to make progress towards furthering the market opening and decoupling of support that has come to define the liberalisation process. Negotiations were formally suspended in July 2006 but discussions are now underway to conclude the talks. At the time of writing (January 2009) a revised outline agriculture agreement is under active discussion. Pressure to complete the round remains strong and the consensus is that the resulting further liberalisation of markets and policy will be a major driver of land use and landscape change over the medium term, particularly in places like the European Union (EU) where protectionist policies are so long established and deeply entrenched.

Type
Chapter
Information
Globalisation and Agricultural Landscapes
Change Patterns and Policy trends in Developed Countries
 , pp. 17 - 30
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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