"Preface" [2012] ELECD 111; in McMahon, A. Joseph; Desta, Geboye Melaku (eds), "Research Handbook on the WTO Agriculture Agreement" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: Research Handbook on the WTO Agriculture Agreement

Editor(s): McMahon, A. Joseph; Desta, Geboye Melaku

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848441163

Section Title: Preface

Number of pages: 5

Extract:

Preface


When we were approached to edit a collection on International
Agricultural Trade Law, we eschewed an approach which would have
examined the existing provisions of the Agreement on Agriculture
(AoA) and the agriculture negotiations in the Doha Round. A major
factor in this decision was that a significant body of commentary and
literature already exists on the rules of the AoA, a significant
proportion of it authored by the contributors to this volume. We did
not wish to repeat or reproduce that literature here. Instead, we have
chosen to focus on the `new' issues that are closely linked to the
international regulation of agricultural production and trade, but that
have neither been sufficiently covered by the rules of the AoA nor
adequately addressed in the literature. Many of these issues are either
left to some other non-WTO instruments and systems (e.g. climate
change under the UNFCCC system, etc.), raising the issue of relations
with the WTO regime as a key question, or simply fall in the cracks
between the WTO and those other regimes (as the food security issue
appears to be). This volume focuses on these borderline issues. At the
same time, we also needed to put these issues within the context of the
existing legal terrain. We use the Introduction chapter to provide the
necessary background information, where we examine the provisions
of the AoA, as informed by the jurisprudence of WTO Panels and the
Appellate Body. This introduction also offers a very brief synopsis ...