Special Safeguard Mechanisms for the Agricultural Sector: The GATT Negotiations
分析关贸总协定乌拉圭回合谈判中提出的农业特殊保障机制，比较基于价格下跌和进口激增两种触发条件的保障措施，对理解农业贸易谈判中的妥协方案有参考价值。
The Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) negotiations is deadlocked on the issue of agricultural policy reform. Although broad consensus has been reached regarding replacing all nontariff trade barriers with "equivalent tariffs," agreement on the questions of domestic farm policy reforms and access to domestic markets by exporting countries has not yet been reached. Arthur Dunkel, Director General of the GATT, has put forward a compromise proposal that seeks to ensure minimum access to the domestic markets of all countries while providing importing countries with special safeguard mechanisms to protect their domestic markets against large price declines and import surges. Within this context, we analyze and compare safeguard mechanisms activated either by prices declining below some benchmark level or by imports surging above a prespecified level.