ABSTRACT
The national trade policies and the international set of regulations after the Second World War were extremely dependent on the domestic agricultural aims pursued at that time by the industrialised countries, particularly by the United States. In analysing world agricultural trade trends in the post-war period, a special mention of the so-called farm adjustment problem is necessary. Average international prices fell by approximately 50 percent, which particularly affected countries producing agricultural goods; the value of international agricultural trade declined even more sharply than its volume. But probably the most serious legacy of the years of depression was the general spread of protectionism worldwide. A remarkable increase in tariffs and also the use of other unconventional measures to protect domestic agriculture was one of the most important legacies of the depression for post-war years. International agricultural trade after the Second World War was, therefore, greatly distorted by trade policies that were an adjunct of domestic farm policies.
