665 ACTA UNIVERSITATIS AGRICULTURAE ET SILVICULTURAE MENDELIANAE BRUNENSIS Volume LVIII 67 Number 6, 2010 THE EFFECT OF TRADE LIBERALISATION ON SYRIAN AGRICULTURE B. Abbas, P. Procházka Received: September 3, 2010 Abstract ABBAS, B., PROCHÁZKA, P.: The effect of trade liberalisation on Syrian agriculture. Acta univ. agric. et silvic. Mendel. Brun., 2010, LVIII, No. 6, pp. 665–672 Syrian agricultural policy should be characterized by a high level of government intervention, in- cluding fixed prices, government monopoly in strategic crop marketing, government distribution of industrial fertilizers, significant barriers on food and agricultural commodities import and so on. Al- though there were certain changes and liberalization in this area during several last years, the Syrian agriculture remains as the most regulated sector of national economy in Near east and northern Af- rica. On the other hand, we may state the fact that Syrian governmental agriculture policy was success- ful considering so called strategic crops most of all in achieving self-sufficiency in wheat production, also an essential increase of cotton production volume which represents most important export crop of this near east country, took a part. Besides this progress there was restriction of disparity develop- ment in countryside and municipal household’s incomes, which is partial reason for slowing down of Syrian countryside poverty. These positive outcomes were reached at the expense of increasing go- vernmental expenses and worsening of resources efficiency usage both in agriculture production and energy sectors. Considering forecasted spend of oil sources, the Syrian government will be necessa- rily forced to search for alternative resources of economic growth and government budget incomes in near future. The last five year country plan presumes consequental delimitation of grants and implication of value added tax. There is to be a quite large liberalisation in agriculture sector, which should lead to conse- quential down of wheat production, sugar beet and cotton and increase of barley, lentil and chickpea production. Syria, agriculture, international trade, trade liberalisation, pricing policy The Syrian Arab Republic has approximately 17 million inhabitants, of which about one half live in urban areas. The per capita GDP is US$ 831. The ag- ricultural sector is relatively extensive and accounts for 23% of total GDP. The Syrian government adopted “socialism” in the late 1950s and kept control of major industries, though private services and the retail trade were al- lowed. The economy has been adversely affected by various conflicts in the region, including the Arab- Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973 and the Syrian inter- vention in Lebanon from 1976 till 2005. In the early 1990s, limited economic reforms and expansion in oil exports stimulated the economic growth; since then, however, this growth was interrupted and the Syrian economy was stagnating. Although in- ternational trade and the exchange rate have been partially liberalized, the Syrian government still imposes interventions and a significant control on the national economy, including price control, state monopolies in certain strategic sectors, subsidisa- tion of agriculture and many different state-owned enterprises. In general, the per capita GDP grew in average at a rate of 2.2% per year during the 1990s. Like Jor- dan, also Syria was adversely affected by the end of the United Nations Oil for Food programme in Iraq and by the subsequent war in Iraq, which disrupted nearly all former trade flows. More recently, Syria has relatively benefited from the conflict in Iraq and from the resulting high oil prices.