ABSTRACT
This chapter presents development dynamics in relation to their basic paradigms and by locating the general structure of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and trading arrangements. The world trade system arose from an almost fundamentalist belief in the capacity of the free market economy always to increase the standard of living. The chapter reviews a perspective that goes beyond the usual bounds of single disciplines in order to gain a rounded judgement of the rules and regulations of foreign trade policy. The intention is to demonstrate that the most problematic of agricultural issues are embedded in a diversity of other problems. The degree to which the situation of the agricultural sector is dependent on the overall design of the economy in terms of macroeconomics and trade policy is illustrated by comparison of some hypothetical scenarios with regard to the millennium round of trade negotiations.
