Doha Development Rounds: the European Union’s agricultural policy in relation to people’s Republic of China

Abstract

The Doha Development Round was the latest round of trade negotiations among the World Trade Organization members which led to the Bali Package Agreement. Its aim was to manage to reform the international trading system in a wide range of areas including the essential area of agriculture.We presented and analyzed Doha’s objectives in agriculture and examined the negotiations during the Ministerial conferences of Doha, Cancun, Hong Kong, Geneva, Geneva and finally the trade agreement of the ninth Ministerial conference in Bali.Within the specific negotiating framework of the World Trade Organization, we examined, analyzed and presented European Union’s policy regarding its trade relation to China during the Doha Development Round, and EUs’ CAP reforms in order to indicate any possible links between EU’s internal agricultural policies with its trade policy with China.We finally reached to the conclusion that EU’s internal protectionism, as expressed with CAP’s priorities, was linked with trade distorting policies in relation to China. In fact, the internal political turn of CAP to the new field of rural development, which was the start for the reduction of protectionism, was linked with the establishment of Generalized Scheme of Preferences and EU’s intention to reach to an agreement in Bali Ministerial conference.