Trade Barriers Faced by Developing Countries’ Exporters of Tropical and Diversification Products
ICTSD FAO Information Note Series • Information Note No.5
Debate on how best to treat agricultural products of export interest to developing countries remain protracted in the multilateral trade system. Tropical and diversification products have been at the heart of this discussion given the extent of long-standing tariffs and non-tariff barriers affecting them, as well as due to their importance as a source of income, employment and rural development. The prospects for liberalisation of trade in these products, particularly opposed in some key markets, remain uncertain in the WTO’s Doha Round of negotiations. While some developing countries, most visibly a group of Latin American economies, have persistently requested trade openness, others such as the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of states have expressed their concerns that a multilateral elimination of tariffs might result in loss of the preferential access to developed country markets they currently enjoy. Asian producers have so far mainly sought resolution through the Round’s core talks on access for agricultural goods.
As a contribution to this discussion, the present Information Note provides facts and figures on the reality of trade in tropical and diversification products. It also explores the extent to which there is differential access to key import markets, and the implications of this for different groups of countries.