Market access : agricultural policy reform and developing countries

The conversion of all non-tariff measures into bound tariffs with reduction commitments and the introduction of minimum access commitments in the form of import quotas (as a share of domestic consumption) are two of the most important achievements of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (URAA). Nevertheless, import protection for agriculture remains very high and nontransparent, especially in rich countries. The average agricultural bound tariff worldwide is estimated to be 62 percent, with a large variation of import protection rates among commodities and countries. In addition, about 28 percent of domestic production in countries belonging to the OECD is protected by import quotas with high out-of-quota tariffs. Tariff peaks remain very high-500 percent or more in some cases-and tariffs in many countries increase by degree of processing, creating an escalating tariff structure that limits imports of processed food products.