though the share of food and agricultural products in global trade is small and declining agricultural trade continues to play an important role for both overall economic development and food security in many developing and emerging economies moreover in multilateral trade negotiations tensions over agriculture have time and again caused particular difficulties and retarded progress in other sectors the agreement on agriculture aoa concluded in the uruguay round was a milestone in multilateral efforts to create operationally effective disciplines governing agricultural trade it established firm rules and clearly specified quantitative reduction commitments