Merlinda D. Ingco and John D. Nash (eds.). 2004. Agriculture and the WTO: Creating a Trading System for Development. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank, 408 pp., $45.00.

Abstract

Merlinda D. Ingco and John D. Nash (eds.). 2004. Agriculture and the WTO: Creating a Trading System for Development. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank, 408 pp., $45.00. The World Bank has a view on how agricultural trade liberalization impacts economic development, and this book describes the basis of that perspective. It contains a description of numerous trade policies, some of which hinder and others which aid development. The trade policies are described, often modeled mathematically and graphically, and supported with data. The book has fifteen chapters and two appendices. Each chapter deals with a different aspect of trade policy. This book is about the importance of gaining greater trade liberalization for developing countries and about some of the economic problems confronting those countries now and that will confront them in the future. The first two chapters discuss the importance of agricultural trade policies to developing economies. The authors place the current trade debate in the context of the Doha Round and the achievements of past GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) rounds, particularly the Uruguay Round. Chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6 describe different methods countries use to distort production, trade, and price. These chapters do a careful analysis of how developed country policies distort trade to the detriment of international competitors, particularly developing countries. In Chapter 3 much space is allocated to the discussion of export subsidies, while less space is given to food aid and export credit programs. Market access is the theme of Chapter 4, with the appropriate focus placed on import tariffs. Chapter 5 focuses on quota administration. The different types of quota administrations are modeled and discussed in detail. A cross-country comparison of quota levels and their impact on specific sectors in different countries is provided. Finally, Chapter 6 deals with the domestic levels of support for agriculture. In all four of these chapters there is a nice mix of theory and data. The remaining chapters are less integrated. Chapter 7 deals with how agricultural policy reform affects the income distribution in a country. It examines the change in the distribution of income when there is an equal reduction in support rates in all countries; it also examines it in a case study of trade liberalization in Mexico versus trade liberalization in rich countries. The analysis depends completely upon the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) policy evaluation model. Chapters 8 and 9 deal with two issues on which much has been written, multifunctionality and food security. The discussion on multifunctionality attempts to broaden the issue to include lessdeveloped regions and non-agricultural outputs from rural landscapes. The reference to ecological goods and services is a recognition that rural people, particularly farmers, produce more than food and biophysical products. The rather short chapter on food security fleshes out how food security is considered in the rules of the WTO (World Trade Organization). In many developing countries, poverty is a major social, political, and economic issue. The authors of this chapter come to the conclusion that multilateral trade liberalization produces benefits to net-food-importing countries. The terms-of-trade impacts resulting from agricultural trade liberalization depend upon the complete array of government policies and not just those in the agriculture sector. …