Food and agricultural products remain one of the most heavily protected sectors of world trade, despite the removal of barriers to trade in most industrial products over the last fifty years.
Australia and the other members of the Cairns Group coalition of agricultural exporting countries have suffered considerable disadvantage because of these trade barriers.
A start to reducing barriers was achieved in the global trade negotiations conducted in the Uruguay Round under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).