ABSTRACT
The Uruguay Round (UR) agreement goes beyond border measures that are traditionally the targets of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) disciplines in bringing some restraint on domestic-support measures as well. Disagreements between the European Union and the United States on liberalizing agriculture and bringing it under the GATT disciplines considerably delayed and almost wrecked the successful conclusion of the UR. Agriculture has been virtually excluded from the broad sweep of trade liberalization and insulated from the normal disciplines of market forces and international competition. Srinivasan and Canonero project a substantial increase in trade in textiles and clothing for the South Asian economies once such trade is liberalized. The gains arising from other aspects of the Final Act besides liberalization of trade in goods are ignored. Fortunately, the liberalization of nonagricultural trade envisaged under the Final Act will reduce the indirect distortion of agricultural trade to some extent.
