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The
Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (URAA) marks a turning
point in the regulation of international trade in agricultural
goods. After more than four decades since the inauguration
of the GATT, the agricultural sector is now included in
the mainstream GATT/WTO rules. Even though the degree of
liberalisation finally achieved under URAA tariff bindings
has fallen well short of original expectations, the URAA
has clearly succeeded in establishing a rule-based trading
system for agriculture. Through the establishment of a multilateral
framework for the discipline of agricultural trade, and
achieving transparency in trade restrictions through the
tariffication process, a firm foundation has now been laid
for further liberalisation (Cline, 1995; Rayner et al.,
1993; Martin and Winters, 1995). In order to build on this
promising start to achieve orderly conditions in world agricultural
trade, it is vital to broaden our understanding of the trade
policy-making process in developing countries and the constraints,
both perceived and real, faced by these countries in their
attempts to comply with the new URAA rules. This paper aims
to contribute towards this end through a case study of Sri
Lanka.
The paper begins with an introduction to
the agricultural sector in the Sri Lankan economy (Section
2). Section 3 provides an account of the current agricultural
production and trade policies while paying attention to
their roots in Sri Lanka’s economic policy history
and the related socio-political considerations. Section
4 is the core of the paper. It examines Sri Lanka’s
commitments to date to the URAA and constraints to further
compliance with URAA provisions, followed by an assessment
of the impact of URAA on world agricultural trade from the
perspective of global trading opportunities for Sri Lanka.
The paper ends in Section 5 with some concluding remarks.
Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- Agriculture in the Sri Lankan Economy
- Agricultural Policy
- Sri Lanka and the Uruguay Round
- Concluding Remarks
- References
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