The Outlook for East-West Agricultural Trade

Abstract

Agricultural trade figures prominently on the current list of East-West issues of immediate relevancy and concern. But during the 1970s, agricultural trade was frequently viewed as a less important aspect of East-West interactions, and in many scholarly discussions it was a forgotten issue. The vast majority of specialists misperceived the evolution of the ‘systemic’ realities and, as a result, underestimated the possibilities for agricultural trade expansion. Looking at the food and agricultural policy trends and developments of the early 1970s, and taking into account past ‘systemic’ differences, scholars usually expressed doubts whether East-West agricultural trade could soon grow to very large dimensions.