The World Trade Organization rounds on agriculture : prospects for animal productions in the European Union

Abstract

The Uruguay Round Agreement on Agricultureapplied over the six-year period from July 1995 to June 2001. It included commitments to increase market access, reduce subsidised exports and diminish tradedistorting domestic support. In a general way, theagreement was not really constraining for the various animal productions in the European Union. It however forced the European Union to decrease subsidised exports for poultry, pork and some dairy products. Onthe other hand, it also forced the European Union to develop unsubsidised exports for the same products.The final outcome of the Doha Round is still very uncertain. An agricultural agreement along the same lines asthe Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture would not be a threat to the various European animal sectors.However, too large increases of tariff rate quotas would put additional pressure on market equilibriums with in the European Union. In the same way, the European Union should not face any problems on the domestic support dossier if the single payment per farm introduced by the Common Agricultural Policy reformof June 2003 is included in the green box. Such a classificationis more than likely if the definition of thegreen box is not challenged in the Doha Round. However, several countries ask for a revision of thegreen box definition and/or argue that all domesticsupport should be reduced even if it is currently considered as green. Several internal factors would also influence animal production patterns in the European Union over the next decade. These factors include foodquality and security, environment protection, ruraldevelopment or animal welfare. These factors are mainly considered as constraints. They can however also bedifferentiation vectors for European animal products.