WTO's Three Pillars: Increase Market Access
Commitment: Developed countries committed to
decrease average tariffs by a minimum of 36 percent by the year
2000 (15 percent for developing countries by the year 2004).
Some countries established TRQ's which allow limited imports
at low in-quota tariff rates (initially 3 percent, expanding
to 5 percent of domestic consumption during the implementation
period), and unlimited imports at much higher over-quota tariffs. |
- Tariff protection remains high in major countries—Even
though market access commitments have been met, average tariffs
on agricultural imports are about 14 percent for the U.S., 30
percent for the EU, and 33 percent for Japan. Nonagricultural
tariffs average below 5 percent.
- The highest tariffs are concentrated in a few major commodities—Among
the U.S., the EU, Japan, and Australia, some of the highest tariffs
are for dairy products. Japan and the EU maintain rates of over
100 percent on certain dairy products and grains and over 50 percent
on meats.
Source
Data
- Over-quota tariff rates may be prohibitive—For the major
industrialized countries, some of the highest tariffs coincide
with over-quota tariffs established as part of tariff rate quotas
(TRQ's). Tariff reductions, and the establishment of tariff rate
quotas by many WTO members, increased market access for agricultural
exports, but also left many high tariffs in place. In practice,
little trade may take place at the higher over-quota rates.
- Some developing countries already apply tariffs well below
WTO ceiling rates—Some developing countries established high
bound tariff rates that are in many cases considerably higher
than tariffs applied at the border. This gap means that importing
countries can impose unannounced tariff hikes up to bound levels.
Such fluctuations counteract the predictability of tariff rates
that WTO bindings were designed to create.
More remains to be done: Despite the gains from
trade liberalization in the Uruguay Round, there is ample room
in upcoming WTO negotiations for further agricultural tariff
reductions and improved transparency of tariff commitments.
Agricultural trade would benefit from reducing high agricultural
tariffs, reforming TRQ's or sharply reducing over-quota tariffs,
and improving the predictability of tariff protection. |
Data source: This analysis is based on data from the Agricultural
Market Access Database developed and maintained jointly by Agriculture
and AgriFood Canada, the European Commission, FAO, OECD, and ERS.
Return to Three pillars,
Increase Market Access,
Reduce Export Subsidies,
or Reduce Domestic Support
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