Commodities, Arbitrations and Equitable Considerations

Abstract

THE international trade in basic or agricultural commodities, and more specifically grains and oilseeds, concerns about 22% of the world production of wheat and 14.5% of the world production of feed grains.1 The deficits of the rest of the world are filled by the USA, Canada, the EC, Australia and Argentina. The world trade in agricultural commodities is 125 million tons which, at an averaged price today of $125 a ton, gives a figure of 15,625 million dollars. For the year 1990–91 the United States alone held about 32% of the international wheat trade and about two-thirds of the international trade in feed grains. Canada trades about 20% of the international wheat market, Australia about 12%, and the EC has kept 20% of international trade in wheat. Argentina enjoys 7% of world wheat exports.2 These numbers change from year to year according to the size of crops and the rate of competitiveness on the world markets. Apart from these five exporting countries, the rest of the world has an insufficient production and imports through centralized national buying agencies only that which is necessary, in order to protect their national production. During recent years, the principal importers of wheat were: the Far Eastern countries including the People's Republic of China (27 to 30 million tons); Japan (5.7 million tons); the former Eastern European countries (2 million tons) and the USSR, which has irregular but strongly increasing needs (30 to 35 million tons for the 1991–1992 period); the African countries and the Near East, (more than 30 million tons); and the European Community (of which the Member States still import 2 million tons a year).3 In animal feeding stuffs, the three biggest importers are the USSR (about 22 million tons), Japan (28 to 29 million tons), and the EC …