How Effective are WTO Disciplines on Domestic Support and Market Access for Agriculture?

摘要

A new round of trade negotiations under the World Trade Organization (WTO) was launched in 2001. One of the major aims of the Doha Devel-opment Round is to reduce agricultural protection and impose greater discipline on domestic agricultural subsidies, particularly those that are most trade distort-ing. In this article, we examine whether the proposed WTO modalities for agri-culture will actually achieve this aim in the case of Norway. Norwegian agriculture, which accounts for less than 1 per cent of GDP and 3 per cent of domestic employment, is among the most heavily protected in the world (NILF, 2007). The OECD's Producer Support Estimate for Norway was 62 per cent in 2008, the highest among the Organization's member countries (OECD, 2009). Norway has a complex system of farm subsidies involving deficiency pay-ments, structural income support, acreage and headage payments, and a range of indirect supports. The system is buttressed by substantial import protection, which limits market access. Consequently, the extent to which Norway will have to change its agricultural support policies in response to new WTO disciplines provides an important indicator of how successful these are likely to be.