The World Market in Fresh Fruit and Vegetables, Wine, and Tropical Beverages-- Government Intervention and Multilateral Policy Reform

Agriculture is a key issue in the Uruguay Round of negotiations under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Much attention has been directed toward reaching an agreement for the multilateral elimination of government policies that distort production, consumption, and .trade in agricultural commodities. While agricultural specialty commodities have not been a primary focus in these negotiations, these high-value commodities are an important source of trade revenue for many countries. This study is a qualitative analysis of the consumption, production, and trade implications of removing trade -distorting government policies for selected agricultural specialty commodities (fresh fruit and vegetables, wine, and tropical beverages) in major importing and exporting countries. Countries providing an off-season base for supplying fresh fruit and vegetables to major markets would benefit from the removal of tariffs by importing countries, but few gains would be expected from liberalizing markets for coffee and cocoa beans and tea. U.S. fruit and wine producers would likely gain from the opening of new export market opportunities