AGRICULTURE IN THE URUGUAY ROUND: ANALYSES OF GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

Current negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade are considering proposals to eliminate government programs affecting agriculture in the member countries. Key to the negotiations are measures to assess the economic effect of such programs on trade. The producer and consumer subsidy equivalents (PSEs and CSEs) are such measures. Subsidy equivalents, by summarizing the effects of a wide variety of government policies into one parameter, allow comparisons to be made of government support across countries, commodity markets, and types of policies. This report presents several analyses of government intervention in agriculture as measured by PSEs and CSEs