US Agricultural Policies

Abstract

Some US import restraints represent the longstanding influence of significant US business and political interest groups. Hence US imports of agriculture and clothing products have been restrained since before a significant US commitment was made to multilateral free trade. Yet the persistence of these policies can not always be explained by the continuing influence of these groups. In addition, the major trading partners of the US have resisted the rigours of the international marketplace in these sensitive sectors. Thus, despite garnering an ever-increasing world-wide support for freer international trade and more effective multilateral oversight, the US and some of its industrial allies find themselves maintaining policies that are somewhat anachronistic and often expensive, reducing national as well as global welfare. These once ‘temporary’ mechanisms have become entrenched cancers in the international economy.