In September 2018, the Institute of Economic Affairs proposed that the United Kingdom should join the Cairns Group "as soon as possible", stating that although "the UK is not a major agricultural exporter, it is locked into EU supply chains.".

[4] There were 14 original member countries—Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Fiji, Hungary, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand, and Uruguay—a very diverse group politically and economically.

Particularly, the objection came to the double standards between the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) forcing countries to liberalise their economies, whilst the United States was granted a waiver for agricultural protection in the 1950s.

In the ongoing Doha Round of trade negotiations, they are mainly opposed by WTO members seeking to uphold their high level of agricultural protection on grounds of public policy, such as the EU, Japan, Norway, South Korea, Switzerland, and United States (dubbed the "multifunctionalists").

[5] After its December 2013 meeting in Bali, Indonesia, the Cairns Group issued a communiqué stating its concern about "the trend of import restrictions" that go against the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures and serve as technical barriers to trade on agricultural products.