Jimmye S. Hillman

Rent Seeking in International Trade: The Great Tomato War

This paper presents a model of international rent-seeking activities by producers in both exporting and importing nations. The model is applied to the winter vegetable trade between the United States and Mexico. An analysis is made of the attempts to form export/import coalitions. Reasons for these failures are given. Due to past failures to impede trade, essentially free trade in winter vegetables between the two countries exists.

Nontariff Barriers: Major Problem in Agricultural Trade

Nontariff barriers have become one of the key issues in agricultural trade policy and trade negotiations. Laws and regulations of a country, in addition to being directly protective, often give administrators wide leeway for interpretation which results in restrictive trade flows. The domestic agriculture of most developed countries is protected by one or more of the following: quantitative restrictions, licensing requirements, variable levies, export subsidies, minimum import prices, import calendars, state trading, mixing regulations, health and sanitary regulations, and standards and labelling. Ultimately, nontariff barriers must be negotiated like tariffs and other protective devices.

The Role of Export Cropping in Less Developed Countries

Discussions about agricultural exports from poor countries (LDCs) often involve two diametrically opposed positions: those that view exports along with agribusiness and associated phenomena as causing most of the problems of poor countries; and those that believe not only in an export orientation for the less developed countries (LDCs), but that agricultural, raw material, and food exports hold a key place in the economic development of many of them. At the outset, I should like to recognize the danger of generalizing because of the diversity of LDCs. Developing countries vary greatly in size, resource endowments, economic and political systems, policies, and economic stability, for example. This

Public Choice and Agriculture: An American Example

In the United States, agricultural politics were very much in the news in 1989. There were the intense negotiations in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT); the

Brazilian soybeans: Agribusiness “miracle”

40+ billion appropriations bill for the nation’s farm and food programmes; the

Surplus Disposal and Supply Control

900 million farmer reimbursement package for crop losses due to drought, floods — all have kept the agricultural situation in the forefront of the communications media. Because of this and other related events, a paper on ‘public choice and agriculture’ appears very appropriate at this time. We shall first examine the theory then proceed to examples which appear to substantiate the general thesis.

Evolution of American Agricultural Trade Policy and European Interaction

Brazils development into a major producer, crusher, and exporter of soybeans and soybean products formented an agribusiness complex of major proportions during the 1960s and 1970s. The soybean industry policy, in many ways, has had considerable impact on parts of rural Brazil. The Brazilian experience with the soybean industry provides an interesting example of an attempt by a country to integrate agribusiness with domestic social policies in a semi-private economy which is developing rapidly. It also provides an example of government intervention at all levels of an industry- production, marketing, and export-in order to attain social and economic policy goals.

US and EC agricultural trade policies: Confrontation or negotiation?

This article presents a simple model showing the relationship which exists between the surplus disposal program and a program of voluntary supply control of agricultural products. Disposal of surpluses raises problems of their valuation and costs. Production control presents other cost considerations. Values of and actions by the committees of the U.S. Congress which control the farm price and surplus export programs hold the key to the entire complex. It is doubtful that the two programs can be successfully wedded to the satisfaction of those who are interested in minimizing costs, because the existential nature of a surplus disposal program predisposes the relevant Congressional committees to rationalize an expanded production. The authors feel that food-aid-for-economic-development possibly should be pushed more than in the past; but even here the values held by Congress, and not the opinions of economists, will prevail.

Food — The ultimate weapon?

United States trade and agricultural policies cannot be fully understood without reference to their historical and contemporary European counterparts. Policy with respect to using the international market and trade instruments to produce specific outcomes in the farm and the food-budget sectors is still relatively young and undeveloped. It does not compare, for example, with the long history of protection for farmers, such as that adopted by France in the nineteenth century, or of explicitly protecting consumers through cheap imports while carefully rationing public expenditures for farm-income support or modernisation, as was the policy in Britain until she applied to join the European Community.

High food prices: the tip of an iceberg

The current American and European mutual accusations of agricultural protectionism are an obvious case of the pot calling the kettle black. What series of events led up to this confrontation? And how can the conflict situation be eased?