The current American and European mutual accusations of agricultural protectionism are an obvious case of the pot calling the kettle black. What series of events led up to this confrontation? And how can the conflict situation be eased?

The GATT Minister Conference to be held in Tokyo from September 12 to 14 will be the prelude to a new round of international negotiations about further liberalisation of world trade. Preparatory work of some six years thus comes to its conclusion.

In August the Soviet government agreed to the second one-year extension of the US-USSR grain agreement, which has regulated grain trade between the two countries since 1976. Although a net exporter of grain for the best part of this century, the USSR has become increasingly dependent on imports...

While multinational agreements are subject to lively discussions and their negotiations the frequent topic of our news, little is known about bilateral agreements. This despite the fact that their number has greatly increased since the worldwide recession. So alone the USA and the EC have both...