India’s Agriculture in Pre and Post-WTO Regime

Abstract

The Bretton Woods institution of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was converted into the World Trade Organisation (WTO) after The Eighth Uruguay Round of the GATT that started with 105 member countries in 1986 and ended with 117 countries on December 15, 1993 whereas the negotiations were scheduled to be concluded on December, 1990 but got bogged down in controversial issues particularly trade and agriculture. It was a marathon discourse among developed and developing countries that went on seventh years. What distinguished the Round from earlier GATT Round of Talks was the scope of negotiations. The result was that the treaty had been signed at the Ministerial Meet in April, 1994 and the Agreement became effective from January 1, 1995, i.e. , the WTO came into existence at this time. The negotiations encompassed the areas of market access, agriculture, textiles and clothing, TRIPS and TRIMS, trade in services, GATT rules making and institutional matters. Broadly these areas may be summed up in the three categories of trade, agriculture and TRIPS & TRIMS. A peep into the WTO provisions, one may find that the whole discussion revolves around these three issues. More specifically, the WTO is such a multilateral institution that is directly working for expansion of global trade. At the same time India is primarily an agricultural economy where agriculture has become a culture. Keeping in view the total two-third population approximately engaged in agricultural pursuits directly or indirectly, the present study will look into the current status of trade and agriculture in both pre and post-WTO periods.