Agricultural trade: A way forward for negotiations after Seattle

摘要

The World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting at Seattle was a different sort of trade policy meeting. To judge from media reporting, the failed Seattle meeting, if not the death knell for the World Trade Organisation, may have been at least a significant challenge to its legitimacy and its current work program. If this were true it would be bad news for Australia's agrifood sector because the World Trade Organisation has been the only effective mechanism for achieving broad reductions in agricultural support and protection.