Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics

2014 Edition
| Editors: Paul B. Thompson, David M. Kaplan

Multifunctionality of Agriculture and International Trade

Reference work entry
First Online:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0929-4_364
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Synonyms

Agricultural policy; Competitiveness; Cultural issues; Economic development; Food security; Global ecology; International trade; Sustainability; Trade policy; World governance

Introduction

As the guarantor of our subsistence, “agriculture is a security matter” (PISANI 2004). It is the oldest political issue and probably one of the most worrying in the years to come.

In the current framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agricultural trade negotiations, the aim of reducing, or even suppressing, the impossibly high custom tariffs of the 1980s has not been achieved and seems in fact to have reached its limits. These have been highlighted by the deadlocked Doha Round negotiations and the endless debates and disputes inherent to these talks. They might even point to the culmination of a system. The tariffs that have been immune to past efforts to reduce them now represent the core of national protective barriers, and the political cost of tariff reductions seems today way...

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References

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Ministry of Foreign AffairsParisFrance