ABSTRACT
Since the early 1960s, various proposals have attempted to define the Pacific Basin region as a distinct economic community of interdependent trading countries. In all such attempts, the problem of exclusion implied by the selection of countries to include has been, and continues to be, a major obstacle to formalizing an international agreement on a Pacific free trade bloc. In keeping with the informal concept of the Pacific Rim (or Pacific Basin) as an open and dynamically growing region of interdependent trading countries, the chapters in this book present a perspective of the agricultural trade and adjustment problems of the region as we approach the twenty-first century. The region is too large and diverse for equal coverage to be given to all the countries within the time and resources allotted for the symposium. Thus, the strategy was first to address the major issues of the region from a global perspective, and then to take a closer in-depth look at the particular problems of selected countries within the region. The knowledge gained from this exercise serves as a useful baseline for revising hypotheses for further research work on the continuing problems and issues of agricultural trade and development of the Pacific.
