Politique agricole et agriculture aux Etats-Unis: evolution et enjeux actuels//Agriculture and Agricultural Policy in the United States: evolution and issues

Abstract

Within the global context of liberalization of agricultural trade, the United States and the European Union provides the highest support to their agricultural sectors. The two entities are the world's largest exporters, accounting respectively for 19 % and 18 % of the World agricultural trade. It is the result of long-lasting traditions of strong agricultural policies. This paper examines the goals, the approaches and the results of the United States farm policy, while providing some elements of compa- rison with the European Union. First introduced in 1933, agricultural policies in the United States have been based on a combination of supply controls and farm price support; in 1996, the legislation changed and the new system now gives direct income support payments without any supply control. These supports spurred on the increase of production and labor productivity in the agricultural sector, which allows the US farms to be amongst the most productive in the World. Despite this, US export market share have tended to decline since the 1980% largely due to the steady increasing competition from the European Union and the CAIRN countries (mainly Brazil, Argentina and Australia). A change that has raised new issues and concerns. Among them are the need to increase the share of high value products in the US agricultural exports — the European Union appears to be ahead in this area —; the capitalization of subsidies into land value accruing mainly to landowners; the negative impact of wealthier countries' high agricultural support and subsidies on the agriculture of developing countries, which has lead to the failure of the last WTO's meeting.