Rich countries protection in agriculture is seven times higher than other activities with an average of 20.1% for duties applied on agricultural imports and 2.6% for industrial ones.
However, agricultural protectionism is not the monopoly of developed economies: developing countries apply a slightly higher protection rate in average (21.9%, see map 1 for details). What is striking is the huge gap between agriculture and other sectors’ protection in northern economies (see map 2).
This issue raises a serious concern. Rich countries have widely opened their industrial markets but still keep locked their agricultural markets even if this sector concentrates most of the comparative advantages of the developing world. How could we explain this situation? Why have we waited 50 years and the Uruguay Round Agreement (1995) to see the first commitments on agriculture?

In every country, and developed ones are not an exception to the rule, agriculture is not a sector like the others:

• Even if a country could buy at a lower price agricultural products on the world markets, many countries want to keep farming activities at home. Food self-sufficiency is a priority for many. Moreover, the capacity to export agricultural products and to provide food aid is still a strong strategic weapon and an efficient diplomatic tool.
• Agriculture is a multifunctional activity and it provides side-services that go further than producing consumption goods. It supports the rural world and, for this reason, is a key element to regional planning. Currently, regarding doubts about new developments on biofuels and green chemistry, an increasing number of countries fears to renounce to an activity that may be a core element in their future industrial and energetic strategy.
• Farm lobbies (producers and land owners) are nearly everywhere major actors in the political game with older connections than any other groups. Moreover, to ensure territorial cohesion and maintain outlying areas involved in the national political process, the division into constituencies in developed countries overweight the role of rural areas compared to their demographic importance.

The concentration of protectionist measures (high import duties but also norms) on this sector explains why the agricultural issue is the keystone of current trade negotiations. For example, a success in the Doha Round - still in a dead end since the Postdam meeting – is dependant on the following compromise: The North will renounce to the agriculture exception and the South will be agree to open all its markets starting by the manufacturing sectors.