American and European Agricultural Market Access: A Concern for The South?

For years, the agricultural policies of the United States and the European Union have been the object of internal debate at the same time as they have been at the heart of agricultural discussions in the Doha round of WTO negotiations. The CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) is being examined in the framework of the “Health Check” and of the general review of EU community finances, the American discussions about the Farm bill are making no headway and the Doha round of negotiations is still blocked. Now suddenly the food crisis that has been developing over the last few months has put agricultural issues into the headlines again. A workshop on European and American agricultural policies took place last March, organised by Bruegel, the CEPII, the German Marshall Fund and the IFPRI. The CEPII presented the conclusions of its evaluation of the effects of opening the European and American agricultural markets to the developing economies. This Letter summarises the principle results of this work.