Discussion in this group was focused on the following four points. 1)Why does the trade friction occur? 2)How is agricultural protection defined and what is the present situation of it? 3)How is domestic or regional(EC)adjustment problem coped with? 4)What is the new principle of adjustment to solve the agricultural trade friction problem?
1)Overproduction of agricultural products comes from agricultural protection policies in both export and import countries such as price support, income compensation, trade subsidies and so on. Moreover, this problem is complicated by the aspects of international trade-balances between agriculture and industry, and political balance between export and import countries.
2)Most reporters agreed to reduce the agricultural protection. However, there remains an issue whether agricultural subsidies for such reasons as environmental conservation and the preservation of social and cultural values are a protection cost or not and how to pay the cost to the farmer.
3)Every country has many problems to solve in domestic conflicts. In U. S. A., there exists a contradiction between central government opinion(free trade)and that of the U. S. Agricultural Association(agricultural protection). EC has a conflict among its member countries. Japan is also facing different opinions among people, regarding the rice problem. These domestic situations are very different between import and export countries.
4)We must not underevaluate the effectiveness of free competition. But, free trade based on comparative advantage made economic structure concentrated into certain sectors and caused severe trade friction. And now it is a big problem how we should combine the externality of agriculture with the principle of international adjustment for trade friction.
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