Agriculture

Abstract Agriculture was not formally excluded from the GATT, but it was never effectively brought within the GATT/WTO system. Many countries— developed and developing—granted subsidies of various kinds; import quotas were common; commodity agreements, which combined restraints on exports by developing countries with import restraints by developed countries, were accepted as a necessary departure from the GATT model; and wide-ranging waivers under GATT Article XXV(5) proliferated after an initial waiver granted to the United States in 1955 on products subject to the so-called Agricultural Adjustment Act. Both the United States and the European Community were committed to maintaining farm income by keeping domestic prices above world prices.