La politique agricole dans les négociations internationales

The paper covers the main topic of the French agricultural trade policy: the cap and the gatt. We review some developments of the cap in relation to the successive gatt rounds. Against early evidence of difficulties, the cap was not significantly adjusted, even in 1984, before the 1992 reform under the pressure of the Uruguay Round and of the previous concessions making the grain policy untenable. The French agricultural strategy is seen as too narrowly focused on the financial and trade benefits derived from the customs union and the financial solidarity principle. The French agricultural policy is paradoxical for a structural exporter as it relies extensively on market support, intervention and restitutions. Some explanations of this French paradox are suggested, and the supra national nature of the cap viewed as a main factor. Agenda 2000 and the « Loi d'orientation » could launch a far reaching agricultural policy, consistent with the European model of the countryside, if the whole support to the farm sector were channelled through the system of the «Contrats territoriaux d'exploitation», based not on agricultural products volumes, but on agricultural practices and effective environmental services.