Book Description

"During the 1980s, conflicts surrounding the international grain trade intensified as the value of the dollar rose and the European Community employed export subsidies to penetrate traditional U.S. markets. Ronald T. Libby shows that the U.S. government, armed with the Export Enhancement Program (EEP) of 1985, waged an effective subsidy battle with Europe during the Reagan and Bush administrations. American agricultural policy is, he argues, profoundly mercantilist in its orientation and strongly at odds with the rhetoric of liberal economic policy expressed by both presidents." "Libby reconstructs the history of the EEP from its formation through the European response and the events of the latter 1980s. By subsidizing the export of surplus U.S. grain, the EEP eventually helped raise to intolerable levels the political costs of Europe's agricultural policies, and it became a major U.S. bargaining lever in the Uruguay round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade negotiations. Analyzing the EEP with reference to its political utility, Libby counters the prevailing assessment of mercantilist policies as retrograde and counterproductive. He seeks to demonstrate that the EEP did not endanger global free trade and that it succeeded in contributing to restoring U.S. dominance of the grain market. In addition, Libby presents for the first time a comparative data base on agricultural subsidies that illuminates their pervasiveness in international trade." "Protecting Markets includes the most comprehensive available discussion of the political life of the Uruguay round and challenges fundamental assumptions about the politics of trade. It will raise the level of debate among political scientists and others concerned with U.S. politics, trade and agricultural policies, and transatlantic relations."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved