The United States Congress is currently devising the next farm bill. One of the many factors influencing the debate is the effect of trade agreements into which the United States has entered. Under the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Agriculture, government spending on trade-distorting...

The stringent guidelines for producing, harvesting, and shipping certified non-hormone treated beef for the European Union create additional costs that greatly reduce the competitiveness of U.S. beef. What had once been a large market for beef variety meats and then a niche market for...

This paper briefly summarizes the impacts of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reforms on the European agricultural sector and on international agricultural trade. Objectives of the CAP reform (as stated in EU Commission documents) are to ensure the environmental viability of...

Using the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) modeling system, we investigate the multilateral removal of border taxes and farm programs and their distortion of world agricultural markets. We find that agricultural and trade distortions have significant terms-of-trade...

When the government wants farmers to adopt a certain management practice on environmentally sensitive land, it can mandate adoption, with fines for noncompliance, or use a stewardship program, with incentives for those who comply. The Federal Agriculture Improvement Act of 1996 (FAIR) continues...

The WTO commitments made by the United States are often cited as being an important constraint on the design of future U.S. farm programs. Many, however, are confused about the U.S. commitments and their future importance. In this paper, the authors attempt to fill this gap in understanding by...

This paper presents a detailed report of the representative farm analysis, which analyzed the impacts of two alternative risk management proposals, the Farmers' Risk Management Act of 1999 (S. 1666) and the Risk Management for the 21st Century Act (S. 1580). The representative farm analysis is...

The Agricultural Risk Protection Act (ARPA) has largely met its objectives of inducing farmers to increase their use of the crop insurance program. Both insured acreage and coverage levels have increased dramatically in response to ARPA's large increase in premium subsidies. An unintended...

Since 1992, the European Union has protected high-quality agricultural products based on geographical origin using designations of geographical indications (GIs). U.S. producers and processors can obtain a type of trademark called a certification mark, which provides similar protections to that...

Under conditions that saw farm policy come under increasing criticism in the fall of 1999, this paper asks readers to take a closer look at what farm policy should accomplish. Babcock describes the various interest groups calling for farm policy reform, reviews three reasons for implementing...