Agricultural Trade Issues Research Articles

Japan's Position in the Context of Agricultural Trade Issues

Japan's Position in the Context of Agricultural Trade Issues

Japan's Position in the Context of Agricultural Trade Issues

Japan's Position in the Context of Agricultural Trade Issues

The United Kingdom's Domestic Policy for Agriculture after Brexit

SummaryThe decision in June 2016 by the UK to leave the EU found government departments responsible for domestic agriculture without detailed plans for a post‐Brexit national agricultural policy. In February 2017, the Secretary of State indicated five broad ‘priorities’ that largely continue the direction of previous domestic policy. While agricultural trade issues must remain unsettled for some years, consideration can be given now to the shape of UK post‐Brexit domestic agricultural policy in each of the devolved administrations (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland). This article considers from first principles the interventions that could justify public funding. Market failure lies behind the rationale for a range of actions that broadly correspond with current Rural Development Programmes, though not all elements are likely to survive scrutiny. Basic Payments are not seen as having any supporting rationale and should be withdrawn; the issue is how best to exit from them. The end result should be a policy that results in a British agriculture more attuned to the nation's environmental objectives, more internationally competitive, more innovative, and capable of achieving these aims at a lower public cost, thereby freeing up resources for other pressing national purposes.

WTO Negotiations and Other Agricultural Trade Issues in Japan

This paper examines the current developments in WTO negotiations on agriculture and discusses the issues of greatest concern to Japan as well as agricultural issues in free trade area (FTA) negotiations relating to Japan. With regard to agricultural policies in Japan it is stressed that: (1) structural reform in Japanese agriculture is essential to promote the WTO agricultural negotiations and to make negotiations on FTAs more effective and prompt; (2) Japan must consider various measures to increase the investment of capital from outside agriculture and the accumulation of new human capital; and (3) there should be increased market competition in Japanese agriculture so that productive resources can be better concentrated in efficient farms and farm businesses. On international issues, it may be desirable to establish an international forum, particularly among Asian countries, to discuss important agricultural issues in the region. This forum should consider not only agricultural tariff reductions, but also sanitary and phyto‐sanitary (SPS) measures that might be addressed in working toward a broader FTA in Asia. The objective would be for Japan to play a strong leadership role in seeking wider cooperation on agricultural policies and agricultural resource management together with potential FTA partners in the Asian region.

Agricultural Trade Issues in Transatlantic Trade Relations

Agricultural Trade Issues in Transatlantic Trade Relations

Agricultural Trade Issues among Pacific Ocean Countries: Discussion

Expanded international trade has become a new national priority for the United States. Agricultural trade is the national success story of this decade. And trade in grain and oilseed products is drawing world leaders closer together. These are among the messages that Hathaway; McCalla, Schmitz, and Storey have brought us in their formal papers. World agricultural trade is a growth story. While our speakers have described it in very low key, almost academic terms, it certainly can be described in far more exciting terms. The growth in both quantity and dollar terms exceeds what analysts have a right to expect, given the inelastic demand for food, the role of food in the national security of nations, and the protectionistic attitude of world leaders toward agricultural markets since World War II.

Agricultural Trade Issues among Pacific Ocean Countries: Discussion

Both papers presented in this session provide useful background information, and I find myself in substantial agreement with them as far as they go. However, neither paper directly addressed the theme of the session. After making several comments on the papers presented, I will comment on several important agricultural trade issues among Pacific Basin countries not treated in either paper. Hathaway provides a useful review of trends in world agricultural trade flows and shares over the last four decades, but only tangentially discusses Pacific Basin trade issues. I concur with his identification of the developing countries and centrally planned economies as two of the most important determinants of future directions in international agricultural trade. He lists relative growth rates of population and real per capita income as important variables which drive the system. However, there are two related issues which he ignores. First is the ability to pay or balance of payments constraint of both developing countries and centrally planned economies. An important study by Valdes and Huddleston is in progress at the International Food Policy Research Institute on the likelihood of agricultural exports from developing countries being able to generate the foreign exchange to pay for their projected food import needs. We need a great deal more research on understanding the import decision-making process in both types of countries. Second, in developing countries food is a wage good which bulks large in both the consumer's market basket and in aggregate national income. Therefore, any change in food prices causes a significant change in real per capita income, thereby shifting the internal demand for food and, in turn, demand for agricultural imports. Similarly,

Australia, Canada, and the United States: Trade Partners or Competitors

Australia, Canada, and the United States are three of the world's largest traders in temperate zone agricultural commodities. More than two-thirds of world exports of wheat, feed grains, and oilseeds originate in the three, with the United States accounting alone for nearly 40% of the wheat, 70% of the corn, and nearly 80% of the soybeans exported. In addition 25% of the world meat trade occurs among the three. Beyond these items, there is significant bilateral trade in fruits, vegetables, and assorted other products. Agricultural trade is important to the countries themselves. Agricultural exports accounted for the following percentages of total exports in 1976Australia 43.5%, United States 20.6%, and Canada 11%. Agricultural exports are even more important to the agricultural economies of the three countries. It is not surprising, therefore, that there is an interesting set of agricultural trade issues in which all three have vital interests.