Agricultural Trade Negotiations: Stalemate in the Uruguay Round.

摘要

As you requested, we have been monitoring the multilateral trade negotiations in Geneva with respect to liberalizing agricultural trade. Our first report, Agricultural Trade Negotiations: Initial Phase of the Uruguay Round (GAO/NSIAD-88-144BR, May 5, 1988), assessed progress in the negotiations through the first year of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). This report assesses progress in the negotiations through, December 1990, the originally scheduled completion date for the Uruguay Round. It also discusses the concerns of producers of major U.S. agricultural commodities with respect to the negotiations. While agriculture was but 1 of 15 issues discussed in the Uruguay Round of the GATT, it was clearly the key. Whereas the liberalization of agricultural trade had a relatively low priority in previous negotiating rounds, the U.S. government made agricultural trade reform its top priority in the Uruguay Round.