Prelims 2015 · archive
EasyThe terms 'Agreement on Agriculture', 'Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures' and 'Peace Clause' appear in the news frequently in the context of the affairs of the
Answer & explanation
Answer: (c) World Trade Organization
All three terms belong to the World Trade Organization. The Agreement on Agriculture and the SPS Agreement are WTO agreements negotiated in the Uruguay Round. The 'Peace Clause' was a provision of the Agreement on Agriculture that, during a nine-year implementation period from 1995, protected farm subsidies from legal challenge at the WTO. The term returned to the news when the 2013 Bali WTO Ministerial adopted an interim peace clause for developing countries' public food-stockholding programmes.
- ✗ (a) FAO is the UN agency for food security and agriculture. It does not administer binding trade agreements on farm subsidies or on sanitary and phytosanitary trade measures.
- ✗ (b) The UN climate change framework (UNFCCC) deals with climate change. It has no agreements on farm trade, SPS measures or a Peace Clause.
- ✓ (c) The Agreement on Agriculture and the SPS Agreement were negotiated in the Uruguay Round and are administered by the WTO. The Peace Clause is a WTO concept tied to the Agreement on Agriculture's nine-year implementation period beginning in 1995.
- ✗ (d) UNEP is the UN's environmental programme. It does not administer trade rules or trade dispute settlement.
Remember · Agreement on Agriculture, SPS Agreement and Peace Clause are all WTO matters, products of the Uruguay Round. The Peace Clause shields farm subsidies from WTO challenge.
Sources
- WTO – Agriculture: explanation of the agreement – introduction ↗ “For the purpose of the peace clause, the implementation period is the nine-year period commencing in 1995. … The present rules and commitments on agriculture are often called the “Uruguay Round reform programme” — they were negotiated in the Uruguay Round”
- WTO – Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures: text of the agreement ↗ “The WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement)”
Question: UPSC Civil Services (Preliminary) 2015, General Studies paper. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 25 Oct 2026 (how we verify). ·