Farm wars
Subtitle: the political economy of agriculture and the international trade regime
By: Robert Wolfe.
Series: International political economy series
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 235
Subjects: Produce trade -- Government policy -- Congresses.; Agriculture and state -- Congresses.; Protectionism -- Congresses.
Description: The Farm War of the early 1980s caused subsequent disruptions in world markets, conflicts among major governments and disagreements in international organizations. The Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations, ostensibly devoted to the new issues of globalization, dragged on from 1986 to 1993 in an attempt to end farm-subsidy battles. Wolfe shows how and why battles over agricultural protectionism were largely resolved through the Round, demonstrating that the global economy is not self-regulating; it needs institutions if it is to be stable. The Green Box, a core provision of The Agreement on Agriculture, shows how states can decide that certain types of policies should be immune from international regulation by the new World Trade Organization, an elegant compromise between the imperatives of responding to global change and maintaining democratic accountability. Wolfe's analysis will be helpful for planners of the next set of farm trade talks, due to begin in 1999, while the annotated text of The Agreement on Agriculture will be especially useful in introducing students to the complexities of trade policy.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 199-223) and index.