ABSTRACT
The most difficult issue for negotiation in the last World Trade Organization (WTO) Round, known as the Doha Development Agenda, has probably been agriculture. Programme of reform started with the mandate provided by Article 20 of the Agriculture Agreement where countries agreed to take into account the experience in implementing the agreement and in particular, to look at 'non-trade concerns, special and differential treatment to developing country Members, and the objective to establish a fair and market-oriented agricultural trading system'. There are a number of negotiations taking place within the WTO. Most of the negotiations are now formally linked by the Doha Development Agenda which constitutes the latest WTO Round. The framework for future agriculture negotiations, adopted as a separate Annex, was widely seen as the main breakthrough. After protracted negotiations, the General Council of the WTO adopted a decision known as the July Package on 31 July 2004.
