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Developing Countries In The World Trade In Agriculture: Bangladesh Perspective.

Developing Countries in the World Trade in Agriculture: Bangladesh Perspective.

1. Introduction.
Agriculture directly or indirectly, is the main source of livelihood of most of the people all over the world. It provides a considerable portion of the national GDP of all developing countries and for the poor countries it provides the main portion of GDP. However, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is the key organisation for controlling the world trading system and of which agriculture is one of the key concerns. The WTO Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) is the sole instrument controlling the world trade in agriculture and agricultural products.

The object of the agreement is to “establish a fair and market-oriented agricultural trading system” and it contains rule regarding three broadly categorised groups, a) market access, b) domestic support, and c) export competition. Has it so far managed to establish a fair and market-oriented agricultural trading system? This is the main concern for the developing countries and especially for the least developing countries (LDC). The text does not properly reflect the will and aspirations of the developing countries, rather it contains some rules which are inconsistent with the interest of the developing countries. It seems that the agreement is more intent to defend the interest of the developed countries.

However, as a signatory party of WTO Agreement on Agriculture, Bangladesh have a lot of concerns on the agreement in order to gain its own interest. Bangladesh is crucially facing the high price rate of food in world market. It cannot effort to feed 150 millions of people by importing from the world market at a higher price, where the rice price is now double than one year before. In order to provide food to our people we have to increase production of food and at the same time Bangladesh as well as other developing countries need to have equal opportunities to export their agricultural products...