Trade rules on agriculture: dynamics of bargaining and enforcement
In the current issue of Governance, Adrian Kay and Robert Ackrill challenge the view that the 1994 Uruguay Round Agreement was a “singular event in the international governance of agriculture,” marking a sudden leap to liberalization. Kay and Ackrill provide historical context for the 1994 Agreement, showing that it was proceeded by a decades-long process of learning through bargaining and rule enforcement. The significance of the Uruguay Round commitments, they argue, is “a matter of nuance and evolution.” Kay and Ackrill also speculate that the 1994 agreement may complicate further bargaining because it “locked in” a high degree of specificity in trade rules. Read more: Institutional Change in the International Governance Agriculture: A Revised Account, 22.3 (July 2009).
