Implications of Macroeconomic Policy Reforms on the North-South Global Regime

The agricultural sector continues to play a critical role for development, especially in developing countries where the majority of the population is involved in agriculture and derives a large portion of its income from it. The structure of agricultural production however, has drastically changed in the last three decades, especially after the implementation of structural adjustment programs in developing countries following the oil crisis in 1979. Since the 1980s, almost 100 countries have been forced to implement such policies, which included the liberalization of markets and the conversion of domestic agricultural production for exports. Trade liberalization and overall globalization however, carry with them tremendous challenges for the rural populations in least developed countries. Although trade liberalization could potentially offer enormous opportunities for countries in the developing world, this potential is undermined by the policies and guidelines of the international trade regime. This paper therefore examines how the IFIs and the WTO have shaped the international and global framework that influences trade and production and its effects on agriculture