"Options for Dealing with Agriculture in a Broader European Economic Area"

[From the Introduction[. The Common Agricultural Policy is once again in trouble. Weaker world markets have increased the cost of export subsidies at a time when price cuts and producer levies have proved unable to stem production. As a consequence, budget limits so painfully negotiated in 1988 are under pressure. The EC is being asked to show itself willing, in the GATT Uruguay Round, to curb the influence of the CAP on world markets, and to renegotiate the rules that govern such trade. A full response would effectively mean a major revision of the CAP instruments. Such a move is strongly resisted by those that benefit from the current policy. On top of these budgetary and trade woes of the CAP are the attacks from environmental groups who argue that it has encouraged environmentally offensive practices. All these have been the subject of extensive analysis in the past few years. No farm policy can ever have had so much of the attention of economists and politicians alike. As if these pressures were not enough, yet another threat to the CAP is on the horizon if anything more serious than those faced in the past. It may well be that the CAP will stand or fall in large part by how it reacts to this latest challenge