ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a discussion on "U.S.-E.C. Farm Trade Confrontation: An Outsider’s View" by Kym Anderson. For the political reasons outlined by Professor Anderson, reform tends to be slow in coming. From the perspective of the traditional agricultural exporters the important thing about agricultural protection is not the effects on economic welfare within the countries who practice it, but the effect it has on world markets and trade. There are few countries that are blameless in the distortion of agricultural commodity markets. The trends in agricultural protection and the consequent effects on international food and fiber markets during the mid 1980s largely explain the approach taken to the Uruguay Round by the Cairns Group. It is indisputable that the interests of the traditional agricultural exporters and the many small developing nations around the world are best served by reform of multilateral trading arrangements and a strong and workable general agreement on tariffs and trade.
