A major difference between the WTO as compared with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund is the domestic political sensitivity of trade. Among trade issues, none are more politically sensitive than agriculture. It took eight rounds of GATT negotiations to achieve the landmark Agreement on Agriculture in 1993. There has been little progress toward reforming agricultural trade rules in the ensuing years. Much more needs to be done.

This chapter reviews domestic support issues in the negotiations since 2000 to revise the Agriculture Agreement. Members failure in 2008 to reach a comprehensive Doha Round outcome set the stage for subsequent negotiations with different views about their relevance. These piecemeal negotiations achieved only few decisions through the 11th ministerial conference in 2017, including to shelter MPS from food security programs of developing countries from challenge. Member subsequently put forth diverse proposals around domestic support rules and commitments, public stockholding for food security purposes, cotton support and transparency leading toward the 12th ministerial conference postponed to 2022. These proposals did not gain consensus support. Thus, 20 years after negotiations were initiated to continue the reform process, there remains need for progress on new support disciplines. A ministerial decision in 2015 to eliminate export subsidies and set agricultural export financing rules has implications for the operation of domestic price support programs.