The United States is a major producer, exporter and importer of agricultural commodities, and U.S. supplies and demands affect global markets. Therefore, pervasive policy surrounding U.S. agriculture has the potential to influence outcomes globally for those who demand and supply agricultural products. Many of those affected by U.S. trade and domestic agricultural policies are among the poorest people on the planet. In many ways, U.S. agricultural policy is harmful to the global poor, says Daniel A. Sumner, the director of the University of California Agricultural Issues Center and a professor at the University of California, Davis.
U.S. policies that thwart the implementation of global trade agreements as well as the perception that the United States does not honour agreements it signs tend to make other countries less willing to negotiate with the United States, further limiting gains from trade for the poor, says Sumner.
Source: Daniel A. Sumner, How U.S. Agricultural Policy Hurts the Developing World, American Enterprise Institute, July 2011.
For text: http://www.aei.org/docLib/Final-Sumner.pdf
For more on Government Issues: http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=33
First published by the National Center for Policy Analysis, United States
FMF Policy Bulletin/ 02 August 2011
