The 1958 Haberler Report stressed the importance of minimising the impact of agricultural subsidies on competitiveness and recommended replacing price support with additional non-production direct payments and anticipated the debate on green box subsidies. But it is only recently that this change has become at the heart of the reform of the global agricultural system. [1] These agreements provide for a certain degree of flexibility in the implementation of developing countries, WTO members (special and differential treatment), least developed countries (LDCs) and net food-importing developing countries (specific provisions). Before the Uruguay Round negotiations, it became increasingly clear that the causes of disorder in world agriculture went beyond the problems of access to imports, traditionally at the centre of the GATT negotiations. The GATT 1947 allowed countries to use export subsidies for agricultural precursors, while export subsidies for industrial products were prohibited. The only conditions were that agricultural export subsidies should not be used to cover more than a fair proportion of world exports of the product concerned (Article XVI(3) of the GATT). GATT rules also allowed countries to use, under certain conditions, import restrictions (e.g. import quotas.B), in particular where such restrictions were necessary to impose measures to effectively limit domestic production (Article XI(2)(c) of the GATT). This exception was also subject to the condition that a minimum share of imports in domestic production was as close as possible.
WTO members took important decisions on agriculture at the WTO Ministerial Conference held in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2015. These include the obligation to eliminate agricultural export subsidies, as well as decisions on public storage for food security purposes, a special protection mechanism for developing countries and trade rules for cotton. WTO information on agriculture, including notifications from WTO members Video: Use of AGIMS National support schemes in agriculture are governed by the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), which entered into force in 1995 and was negotiated in the Uruguay Round (1986-1994). The long-term objective of the AoA is to establish a fair and market-oriented agricultural trading system and to initiate a reform process by negotiating commitments on assistance and protection and establishing stronger and more operationally effective rules and disciplines. . . .