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Agreement on Agriculture: tariffs and market
access
Tariffication, the conversion of nontariff barriers to equivalent
bound tariffs, was one of the most
important outcomes of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture
(AoA). The adoption of a tariffs-only approach for agriculture was
a sweeping reform that went a long way toward subjecting agricultural
trade to the same disciplines applied to other traded goods. In
the Uruguay Round, developed countries committed to decrease average
tariffs on agricultural products by a minimum of 36 percent by the
year 2000 (15 percent for developing countries by the year 2004).
Some countries established tariff-rate quotas (TRQ), which allow
limited imports at low in-quota tariff rates and unlimited imports
at much higher over-quota tariffs. The quota amounts were set initially
at 3 percent, and expand to 5 percent of domestic consumption during
the implementation period.
Tariff reductions and the establishment of TRQs increased market
access for agricultural exports, but also left many high tariffs
in place. Despite the trade liberalization gains in the Uruguay
Round, there is ample room in new WTO negotiations on agriculture
for further tariff reductions and improved transparency of tariff
commitments. Agricultural trade would benefit from reducing high
tariffs, reforming TRQs or sharply reducing over-quota tariffs,
and improving the predictability of tariff protection.
The Agricultural Market Access Database (AMAD) is a publicly available
information tool for the analysis of WTO market access issues in
agriculture. It contains data and information for WTO member countries,
including tariff schedules, tariff bindings, applied tariff rates,
country notifications to the WTO, import quantities, and other useful
data.
The readings below address market access issues, including tariffication
and tariffs. New readings will be posted as they become available.
- Options for Reducing
Agricultural Tariffs, Agricultural Policy Reform in the
WTO—The Road Ahead, May 2001
- Liberalizing Tariff-Rate
Quotas, Agricultural Policy Reform in the WTO—The
Road Ahead, May 2001
- Welfare Implications
of Liberalizing Preferential Quotas, Agricultural Policy
Reform in the WTO—The Road Ahead, May 2001
- Economics of Tariff-Rate Quota
Administration, TB 1893, April 2001
- Profiles of Tariffs in Global
Agricultural Markets, AER 796, January 2001
- Five
Years of Tariff-Rate Quotas—A Status Report, Agricultural
Outlook, November 2000
- India
Relaxes Restraints on Agricultural Imports, Agricultural
Outlook, November 2000
- Agricultural Market Access Database (AMAD)
- The WTO's Three Pillars: Vision
and Reality—Increase Market Access , December 2000
- AoA issues series:
Market access: tariffication and tariff
reduction
Tariff-rate quota administration
- U.S. Tariff-Rate Quotas for Peanuts,
Oil Crops Situation and Outlook Yearbook, October 1999
- Implementation
of Uruguay Round Tariff Reductions, Agricultural Outlook,
November 1999
- Agriculture
and the Evolution of Tariff Bargaining, Agricultural Outlook,
August 1999
- The Economics
of TRQ Administration, IATRC Working Paper #99-6, May 1999
- Market
Access Issues, Agriculture in the WTO, December 1999
- Auctioning
Tariff Quotas for U.S. Sugar Imports, Sugar and Sweetener
Situation and Outlook Report, May 1998
- TRQs
Have Little Impact on EU Market Access, While CEEs May Benefit,
Europe IATR, December 1997
Other Agreement on Agriculture issues:
for more information, contact:
John Wainio
web administration: webadmin@ers.usda.gov
page updated: October 6,
2003
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