"Chapter on Ecuador offers a comparison with other Andean Pact countries. Argues that Ecuador is most in need of stability and security offered by regional market access"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 57.

The Uruguay Round trade negotiations marked a historic turning point in the reform of agricultural trade. The Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (URAA) replaced nontariff barriers with bound tariffs, curbed export subsidies, and codified domestic agricultural programs. Unfortunately, the URAA bound many of the tariffs that replaced nontariff barriers too high, it legitimized export subsidies, and it left the domestic farm policies of the major industrial countries largely untouched. Fortunately, regional trade institutions have also begun to grapple with agricultural trade liberalization. Agriculture was featured in the Mercosur agreement, in recent agreements between the European Union and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and in the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA). Plans for broad supraregional trade structures, such as the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), have also dealt with the inclusion of agricultural trade. Meanwhile, in developing and middle-income countries, unilateral agricultural policy reforms have been part of recent economic policy changes. However, in the industrial countries, agricultural policy reform has languished in the face of much domestic opposition. But the reform of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 1992 and the 1996 Farm Bill in the United States seems to have ushered in a new era of relations between government and agricultural groups. The author points out ways that multilateral, regional, and unilateral paths could be coordinated to liberalized agricultural trade. He proposes a set of multilateral talks that would benefit from agricultural reform at all levels and complete the job begun at the Uruguay Round.

Agricultural trade and development is a backbone of international trade. It includes agricultural trade patterns, commercial policy, international institutions such as WTO, Tariff and non-tariff barriers in international trade, exchange rates, biotechnology and trade, agricultural labour mobility, land reform, environment and the areas and issues spanning these areas. This book brings together leading research and issues in this fundamental field.

With appropriate preparation and policies, the enlargement of the European Union (EU) will result in a broader and higher-level integration of European agriculture, create an environment more conducive to further liberalization of global agricultural trade, and lead to further opening of European markets.As part of the World Bank's Strategic Compact Initiative, the Bank has coordinated activities to help the ten EU accession countries achieve EU membership. These activities include the preparation of studies to facilitate implementation of necessary reforms and sponsoring seminars and workshops to disseminate and analyze the results. This volume presents the major papers and summaries of one of the Workshop deliberations. This volume includes the following topics: • lessons learned from other regional agricultural trade agreements • the evolution of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) • an analysis of the economic impact of trade flows • the harmonization of agricultural policies within trade agreements • the implications of the external trade environment for the accession countries • the role of sanitary and phytosanitary trade rule in EU accession • quantifying the incentive and farm income effects of agricultural support policies in transition economies • major challenges to agricultural input regulation and trade during transition and EU accession • concluding comments by the World Bank.

"Although procedures for pricing "retail" distribution have been established for a long time, methods for pricing bulk or "wholesale" water supplies are still evolving." How to finance the infrastructure and service of bulk water supply, and how to use pricing to achieve efficient allocation and use of water as a resource are the central issues that emerge from discussions about bulk water pricing. Efficiency will lead to allocating water resources better, reducing water losses caused by poor maintenance of the supply systems, and increased monitoring of water quality. At first glance, Brazil may not appear to be a relevant country from which to draw lessons in distributing scarce water resources, since it contains 12 percent of the world's fresh water supply. However, with its vast territory and issues of regional drought and population explosion, Brazil provides a unique environment in which to demonstrate how adequate pricing of bulk water on a regional level can help allocate water efficiently. This paper offers a framework for bulk water pricing reform and examines the lessons from recent analytical work and practice in Brazil, as well as relevant international experience. It then offers recommendations for the development of both water pricing and allocation policies to facilitate continued implementation of bulk water pricing in Brazil.

"Modern society has eliminated the inhumane debtors' prisons for handling the insolvent debtor and in their stead have enacted benign modern laws in the area of bankruptcy. Unscrupulous merchants now use these benign laws for fraudulent purposes." Based on case studies in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela, this is the first publication to provide recommendations about the important legal and institutional issues that are involved in bankruptcy reform in a critical region of the global economy. The authors note that effective bankruptcy policy balances several requirements for the conduct of a stable, successful economy. For example, it might be in the greatest interests to all parties if a company is given an opportunity to restructure and make use of the scarce resources remaining in its possession. On the other hand, inefficient firms, especially those that have long survived only on state subsidies, may need to fail in order to free space in the market for more efficient, better-managed companies. Finally, there are the needs to enforce loan contracts and provide an equitable system of debt collection.

"Mining exploration investment in the Latin American and Caribbean region has increased 130 percent in the last five years, a figure which increases to 500 percent, if Chile is excluded."Governments have revamped mining legislation to enable private investment while becoming more sensitive to environmental factors. In light of this legislation, this report examines the environmental effects of artisanal, small, and medium mines in three Latin American Countries: Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. Four of the most important elements to be considered are: • The age of the mine • Management of tailings • The heterogeneity of the artisanal and small mine sectors • The increasing need to take cultural considerations into account in the decision making process. The paper contains results of the studies on the various mining sectors, strategy and policy recommendations, and country study summaries.