An overview of assessments of the impact of the Uruguay Round on agricultural prices and incomes

This paper presents a synthesis of results from various models that have assessed the impact of the Uruguay Round on global agriculture. The results, on the whole, show that the Uruguay Round is not expected to cause large price and income effects at the global level. The effects are likely to be more significant for individual regions and countries. The paper identifies a number of factors, explaining the differences in the impact assessed using various models. These include partial or non-incorporation of the specific reduction commitments under the Uruguay Round, different practices followed in modelling tariff reductions, differences in transmission elasticities, use of different base periods to apply Uruguay Round reduction commitments, model structure (i.e. partial versus general equilibrium), different aggregation of countries and commodities, and differences in the demand, supply and transmission elasticities.