Discussion POLICY DEVELOPMENTS IN CANADIAN AGRICUL- TURE: REPORT CARD ON TRADE LIBERALIZATION

The country policy review paper on policy developments in Canadian agriculture gives a concise listing of program changes for agriculture and food that have occurred since the mid-1980s. A major focus of many of the changes, as noted in that paper, is to orient agricultural programs to be consistent with the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (URA). The related, and even more compelling, focus underlying the reorientation of Canadian agricultural policy in the last half of the 1990s, has been reduction of budget outlays. A further motivation for changes in farm programs has been the high levels of costs associated with trade disputes. However, the need for expenditure reduc-tions reinforced political will for action on a number of the policy changes highlighted in the country policy review paper for Canada. IMPACTS ON THE CANADIAN FOOD INDUSTRY The changes in Canadian agri-food policy that are outlined in the country review paper have accompanied considerable transformation of the Canadian food processing and distributing industry. At the start of the period under re