Farm Policy and Trade Conflict

One of the most complex parts of the Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations was the agricultural dossier. The European Communities' Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and EC-U.S. relations posed many of the difficult issues. Alan Swinbank and Carolyn Tanner give a compact, clear description and interpretation of the negotiations and the issues. This Thames Essay reviews the history of agriculture in the GATT through the previous rounds of negotiation, provides a succinct overview of the present state of world agriculture, and summarizes the history and present state of the CAP. The next three chapters chart the stages by which the Uruguay Round moved to agreement and simultaneous evolution of the CAP. A thorough description of the agricultural elements in the last Uruguay Round agreement precedes a final chapter looking forward to the desirable features of future world agricultural trade agreements. This will be a valuable source of information for agricultural economists, international trade economists working in governments, international organizations, financial institutions, and universities. Alan Swinbank is Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Reading. Carolyn Tanner is Senior Lecturer in Agricultural Economics, University of Sydney.