Liberalização versus proteccionismo: elementos para compreender o que está em jogo nas negociações da Organização Mundial do Comércio

• Author(s): Moreira, Manuel Belo
• Date: 2008
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/1567
• Origin: Repositório da UTL
• Subject(s): liberalization; politics of support; OMC; social contract; liberalização; politicas de suporte; contrato social
• Document Type: Journal article
• Language: Portuguese
• Contributor(s): Repositório da Universidade de Lisboa

Description

Agricultural and agri-food trade protection (tariffs, subsidies, and other forms of protection such as non-tariff barriers) constitute one of the most disputed grounds of international trade relations. They are particularly important in WTO discussions and are increasingly recognized as having paramount importance for the future of the economic development of poor countries (2005 Human Development Report) and for the future of rural communities of the developed world, particularly for those highly dependent on agriculture and agri-food production. Given its importance one could expect that all those interested in the debate share the same understanding of what are the stakes, even if their perceptions of the outcome are not the same. Under these circumstances, it sees important to clarify the meanings of the enormous panoply of forms of trade protection and look at the most relevant visions about this matter. The aim of this text is then to contribute to this clarification according with a political economy perspective. It must be stressed that this reflection does not have the pretension to achieve a fully comprehensive approach, but only to focus on the most relevant points of discussion. Therefore, it will focus on understanding the rationale of the agriculture and agri-food protection policies that directly or indirectly constitute a form of trade protection. The clear understanding of this rationale constitutes the necessary condition not only to develop a political economy framework, but also to understand the difficulties of the liberalization agenda of the WTO that is one of the most relevant features of the globalization process and of its ups and downs since the Seattle failure in 1999.