Agricultural liberalization : the case of developing countries

The objective of this thesis is to demonstrate, through legal and regulatory analysis, how three non-trade issues - SPS measures, trade in GMOs and food security concerns - might result in new modem barriers to trade that might diminish the gains of freer markets. If developed countries use non-trade concerns to justify more generous domestic support in a non-decoupled way, may do as much harm to international trade as the traditional trade policies instruments did in the past. Such undesired behavior from the developed world is possible due to the inability of current WTO norms to control these new problems. These three special issues must be addressed in future negotiations in order to modify developing countries' perception that the payoffs of trade liberalization are not advantageous for them. The continuance of this perception during current negotiations might lead to the collapse of the current trading system