The Uruguay round agreement on agriculture: food security implications for developing countries

Abstract

The paper presents FAO's assessment of the Uruguay Round on world agricultural markets and the food security implications of such effects for developing countries. The analysis is based largely on FAO's World Food Model, which is used to compare the outcome for the year 2000 with and without the implementation of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture. Although at the global level market effects for most agricultural commodities turn out to be small, the effects are relatively more important for the low-income food-deficit developing countries, especially with regard to their food import bills. The paper concludes, however, that the food security prospects of developing countries are largely determined by underlying factors which the Uruguay Round would not alter to any substantial degree.