ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a discussion on "The US-E.C. Confrontation in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) from an E.C. Perspective: What Did We Learn?" by Eckart Guth and Tonia Pankopf. They have a disclaimer, up front, that indicates that they could tell as many bad stories and lay out as many of the mistakes that the European Community (E.C.) has made as they do in the chapter with regard to the US. It is true that the US tolerated the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) as a necessary irritant in achieving the larger political objective of a strong and unified Europe. The CAP was designed for an area in substantial food deficit. Of course in the early 1980s, both the general and the specific conditions relative to US agriculture reversed dramatically and the United States experienced a rapidly declining market share in a deteriorating international market. The blame for the initial weakening of the GATT was with the US.
