Law, Language and International Trade Regulation in the WTO

Abstract

While attending a major conference on the Future of the World Trade Organization (WTO) recently, I noticed that few delegates attended the session on international agricultural trade. This seeming lack of interest was striking for two reasons. First, international markets for agricultural products are highly distorted because states use quotas and subsidies to manipulate the supply and demand for agricultural products, which in turn affects the price of those goods both on domestic and international markets. 1 Notwithstanding numerous efforts between 1947 and 1995 to liberalize agricultural trade and return it to a more market-led approach, the sector remained largely outside international regulation under the rules in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (the GATT). 2 It was not until 1995, with the creation of the WTO including an Agreement on Agriculture, that specialized rules were finally introduced which attempted to regulate states' use of restrictive trade measures. Despite these new rules, liberalization efforts in international agricultural trade remain considerably behind those in other goods sectors. 3