A related conference, the GASPI
conference, will be held on February 28, 2002.
Prices, Policy, and the WTO
March 1, 2002
Scheman Building
Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa
As Congress attempts to design a new farm bill, a big question is whether various
policy proposals are consistent with our obligations to the negotiated
Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture within the World Trade Organization
(WTO). Some of the proposals circulating in Congress clearly would push
the United States closer to or beyond its limits within the WTO. Furthermore,
a new round of WTO negotiations has just begun. The objective in agriculture
is to move toward elimination of trade-distorting subsidies. U.S. farm
policy seems to be moving in the opposite direction.
The Agricultural Forum 2002 focuses on U.S. farm policy in the context
of our commitments to limit trade-distorting policies for the betterment
of each WTO member nation. At a time when emergency assistance to agricultural
producers has become an annual event, can we make good on our commitments
to keep agricultural subsidies within the acceptable limits set forth
by the Uruguay Round? Is it possible to integrate these two seemingly
competing goals: an effective safety net for agriculture, and a commitment
to expanding world trade through negotiated agreements?
Discussion of the 2002 Forum will include:
· What happened to the idea of agriculture exporting its way to
prosperity?
· Can U.S. agriculture expect better prices as markets open up?
· How have U.S. WTO commitments affected the new farm legislation
so far, and will the WTO moderate agricultural subsidies in the future?
· What is the food consumer's interest in free trade?
Do consumers gain or lose by opening borders--including those in the U.S.--to
trade?
· How have other nations' domestic policies changed as a result
of the international trade agreements, and what do these nations think
of U.S. farm policy?
· How do trade negotiations affect the bottom-line profitability
of
midwestern agriculture?
Copyright © 2002,
Center for Agricultural and Rural
Development
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