アメリカの穀物輸出制限

Abstract

This paper intends to analyze and re-examine the actual effectiveness, types of necessary activities, and impact of export restrictions of grains and oilseeds, which arise as a result of political and economic decision-making. The analyzed data are official reports prepared by the U.S. International Trade Commission, the General Accounting Office (GAO), and the investigation report of the Congressional Research Service of the United States. All these reports cover five export restrictions during the period of 1973 to 1980.What is understood from these reports is to enforce export restriction required excessive time, labor, and financial costs, and made losing the credibility as a stable supplier of the international grain market as well as giving advantages to other competitors such as Brazil, Argentina, and Canada. These are all well-known facts to date. Based on these experiences, the United States has not issued export restrictions for grains and oilseeds for the past three decades even during the grain crisis in 2008. There are some findings, however, about who actually suffered damages from the embargoes among farmers, exporters, and the governments. The paper also classifies the basic merits and demerits of export restrictions in different levels of stakeholders.