Fixing farm trade: policy options for the United States. - book reviews

Business America, Dec 7, 1987

Fixing Farm Trade: Policy Options for the United States.

Written by Robert L. Paarlberg. Published by Ballinger Publishing Co., Cambridge, Mass., 1987. 159 pp. $16.95.

In his book, Fixing Farm Trade, Robert L. Paarlberg reviews the dimensions of the U.S. farm trade crisis and the problems in today's international agricultural trade scene.

After reviewing the current situation, he presents farm policy options that he believes could now be taken in response. His blueprint for improving agricultural trade policy looks at options both at home and abroad, inside and outside the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).

Paarlberg discusses the changing structure of international farm trade, prospects for change in the agricultural policies of the United States, the European Community, and the developing countries, and strategies for pursuing U.S. agricultural trade interests inside and outside the GATT framework.

He also delves into the domestic politics of agriculture, including alternative approaches to U.S. farm policy, the trade consequences of domestic farm policy reform, and other options beyond farm trade policy--fiscal and monetary, manufacturing, and foreign assistance policy actions.