American Agriculture and the Debt Crisis

Abstract

The American agricultural crisis and the Third World debt crisis have distinct differences but have their roots in fundamentally common causal factors and patterns¹. The most obvious linkage is the international trade dimension. The debt problems of Third World countries, which for the most part are major potential import markets for American agricultural products, limited their demand for US agricultural exports at a time when American agriculture had become increasingly dependent on them. However, while most developing countries are food importers, the debts of other countries, particularly the southern cone countries of South America, have resulted in these countries becoming greater competition for the United States in export markets.