Agriculture and The World Trade Organisation

The present volume offers to the reader a multi-faceted dialogue between noted
experts from two major agricultural countries, both founding members of the
Word Trade Organisation, each one with different stakes in the great
globalisation game: France, the world's second-ranking exporter of
agricultural products and headquarters of a number of very active agro-
business companies; and India, crossing the one billion population mark while
emerging from its traditional protectionism, and legitimately concerned about
preserving the interests of its huge farming community and not falling victim
to the profit logic of the multinational corporations. After providing the
recent historical background of agricultural policies in India and France, the
contributors address burning issues related to market and regulation, food
security and food safety, the expected benefits from the WTO and the genuine
problems raised by the new forms of international trade in agriculture,
including the sensitive question of intellectual property rights in bio-
technologies. Whatever the differences between the two countries, and
eventually their conflict of interests, this informed volume underlines the
necessity of moving beyond the North-South divide, in order to address the
real challenges of the future; a fair global order in a sector vital for the
world, the multi-functionality of agriculture, the access for all to secure
and safe food, the preservation of common goods and the ethical dimension of
science and technology.