Committee : World Trade Organization

Country : Republic of Singapore

Delegate : Hergandhani Hanin Hastiwi

University : Jendral Soedirman University

Topic : General Eliminate Trade Remedies in Agriculture

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only international organization that
deals with the global rules of trade between nations. Its main function is to help producers of
goods and services, exporters and importers better protect and manage their businesses. The
WTO has 140 members and also The WTO replaced GATT as the world's global trading
body in 1995. Specific sectors such as agriculture have been addressed, as well as issues
dealing with dumping/anti-dumping, subsidies/anti-subsidies, and saveguard. The purpose of
the WTO is to ensure that global trade commences smoothly, freely and predictably. The
WTO creates and embodies the legal ground rules for global trade among member nations
and thus offers a system for international commerce.

Singapore has an agricultural issues, one of them is food security in this limited
agriculture land. But Singapore with limited amount of land can continue to market their
agricultural sector by implementing effective policies. Singapore has learned to overcome
various forms of food security issues by doing good planning, making efficient use of
resources, and defining a clear vision of the future. Singapore doesn’t grow or produce the
majority of its food needs due to limited agriculture land. The agricultural production in
Singapore is not enough to deliver to the needs of the country's people, and as such about
90% of the country's food comes from overseas imports, making food safety an issue of high
note. Such as rubber, copra, fruits, vegetables, eggs, fish, etc. Most of them is an import stuff.

Singapore is threatened by too much subsidies. Subsidies can be disadvantageous for

Singapore, because by importing domestic production itself useless. Domestic income from
agriculture itself is so minimum. The government evaluates ‘subsidies given’ which is done
so far and tries to minimize them to obtain adequate fiscal space for infrastructure
development. Although it causes the pros and cons, but the policy is expected to have
implications for the improvement of people's welfare. Therefore, trade issues especially
agriculture experienced by WTO member countries are resolved by trade remedies. The rules
of trade remedies are so important to agriculture issues because it helps recovering issues of
each country about agriculture. Singapore believes trade remedies are a good way to solve
problems, because each country will certainly face a problem related to its trade relations
with other countries. Therefore, trade remedies are needed, no need to eliminate the rules of
trade remedies.
References
https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/whatis_e.htm
https://ourworld.unu.edu/en/farming-in-the-sky-in-singapore
https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/agrm8_e.htm
https://ustr.gov/trade-agreements/wto-multilateral-affairs/wto-issues/trade-remedies