The Impact of the Uruguay Round on World Agriculture

Abstract

This paper focuses on the impact of the Uruguay Round (UR) implementation on world agriculture using a multi-regional general equilibrium model and the mapping function of the Geographic Information System (GIS). The results of this study show that the Uruguay Round has had a negative impact on world agriculture in the light of total food production and food distribution. For commodities such as grains, while grain production rises in exporting countries, the effect is not sufficient to cover the fall in production in importing countries. In particular, the impact is serious on food security in importing countries of agricultural products. The negative impact is almost concentrated in importing countries, particularly Japan, the European Union (EU) and South Korea. As is clearly visible on the maps produced by the GIS function, the real state of world agriculture as well as the results evaluated by this Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model has changed negatively in major importing countries and particularly the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Sub-Saharan Africa following the Uruguay Round.

Keywords: Uruguay round, Multi-regional General Equilibrium Model, World Food Production, Food Security, Geographic Information System

JEL Classification: F13, L66,