Regulation and protectionism under GATT

GATT, and to a lesser extent NAFTA and CUSTA, has significantly affected certain sectors of North American agriculture, while other sectors, protected by special regulation before the free trade agreements, remain essentially untouched. This volume surveys and analyzes the effects of the agreements on different agricultural sectors in the United States and Canada and explores the implications of these changes for the future of U.S.-Canadian trade.

The book opens with an overview of the agricultural trade impacts of the three international trade agreements. Case studies on specific agricultural sectors such as the dairy, tobacco, peanut, and sugar industries in the United States and the dairy and poultry industries in Canada provide greater detail.

Adopting Stigler's theory of regulation, the authors show how special-interest politics - for example, in Canadian supply management - has distorted the institutional and structural characteristics of certain branches of agricultural industry, impeding growth in overall economic performance as well as in international trade.