Agriculture was a major item on the agenda of the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), launched in 1986. In this specially commissioned volume the national positions on agriculture taken up by the major players during the course of these negotiations are set out and analyzed, country by country, by a team of internationally renowned experts. The editors have selected and ordered the studies to provide a coherent assessment and synthesis of the main issues and areas of controversy raised by the negotiations. Examination of the reasons for the holding of different national perspectives on the issue of agricultural policy and trade reform helps to explain why reaching international agreement in this area of the GATT negotiations has been so elusive.

A topical, up-to-date and highly authoritative survey of the highly controversial debate around reform of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy. The book begins with a critical assessment of the 1992 MacSharry reform and the 1994 GATT Uruguay Round. It looks to the likely impact of future reforms on the agricultural economy, on consumers and on the environment, in the light of future EU developments including enlargement and budget constraints and the forthcoming world Trade Organization negotiations of 1999. The postscript highlights the main issues likely to inform the CAP debate into the next millennium.

Agriculture was a major item on the agenda of the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), launched in 1986. In this specially commissioned volume the national positions on agriculture taken up by the major players during the course of these negotiations are set out and analysed, country by country, by a team of internationally renowned experts. The editors have selected and ordered the studies to provide a coherent assessment and synthesis of the main issues and areas of controversy raised by the negotiations. Examination of the reasons for the holding of different national perspectives on the issue of agricultural policy and trade reform helps to explain why reaching international agreement in this area of the GATT negotiations has been so elusive.