Additional state intervention harbours the danger of increasing inconsistencies; this is especially true if there is no clear demarcation of duties between authorities at different levels, as is the case in many spheres within the EC. The plans to double the size of the EC Structural Fund by...

World commodity prices increased in 1996 on aggregate by 7 percent. However, taking yearly averages, this was the result of heterogeneous developments: increasing oil prices, which have a dominant weight, and falling prices for industrial raw materials and food and beverages. Forecasts for 1997...

Apart from demand and supply conditions, todays EC trade in agricultural products is determined not only by classical trade policy instruments, e.g. customs or quotas, but in addition by numerous internal instruments influencing consumption, production and storage. The protective character...

Analysing the development of food and agricultural raw material markets during the past twenty years, two phases could be distinguished. Following a long period with production surpluses, comprehensive stocks and stable prices, in the seventies the situation changed dramatically. During 1973 and...