Reforming and repurposing agricultural subsidies to facilitate trade and sustainability

Abstract The 1994 Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture was innovative in the attempt to measure, codify and discipline domestic support to the agricultural sector in a multilateral setting. However, it has proven to be extremely difficult to take the reform process forward in the intervening years. The urgent need for action on agricultural subsidies to improve environmental outcomes and to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation could provide a new impetus. This paper suggests some pathways for win–win solutions, which would reduce distortions in agricultural trade arising from subsidies and simultaneously reduce the harm to the environment and climate that they cause.