ABSTRACT
Cane production entered an important new phase in the nineteenth century with the gradual abolition of slavery in the main producing areas and the influence of technical change. Even a brief analysis such as this highlights the importance of preferential arrangements between countries or trading areas in the conduct of the world sugar trade. The Agreement allocated export quotas for sugar traded on the world market and importers made various commitments to maintain the level of their imports. The 1973 Sugar Agreement was extended twice, in 1975 and in 1976. The mid-1970s were an important time of transition and restructuring for the world sugar trade and it is only in this context that the renewal of economic sugar controls in 1977 may be fully understood. Subsidiary aims such as increasing world sugar consumption and increasing the export earnings of developing countries appear in practice to have been only secondary policy goals.
