ABSTRACT
This chapter traces, therefore, some of the other factors which assist in the interpretative process, notably the emergence of new trading blocs and of the US as important influences on international commodity policy. It focuses on policy switched instead to the negotiation of common pricing structures for major agricultural commodities at levels which would not only assure but also raise farm incomes. Unlike the EEC, it covered only a limited number of agricultural goods and provided no detailed framework for agricultural policy. What follows is a brief introduction to the principles which have guided the evolution of US agricultural policy, on the one hand, and strategic stockpile policy, on the other. It was the transformation of the US from net importer of agricultural commodities to net exporter, notably for grains and oilseeds, from 1963, together with the increasing integration of US agriculture in the world economy, which conspired to bring about a shift in agricultural policy during the 1970s.
