Dispelling Some Misconceptions about Agricultural Trade Liberalization

Stephen Tokarick

Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2008, vol. 22, issue 1, pages 199-216

Abstract: There has been a great deal of public discussion over the impact that agricultural trade liberalization would likely have, especially on low-income countries. Unfortunately, the public discussion has been characterized by a number of misconceptions. This paper provides a clarifying discussion of the issues involved. Among the key points addressed are 1) agricultural "subsidies" are not nearly as large as has been portrayed; 2) tariffs are actually far more distortionary than subsidies and some low-income countries actually benefit from rich country subsides; and 3) widespread tariff reductions will not inflict large damage on developing countries as a result of preference erosion. The case for removing agricultural trade barriers remains compelling, even without the exaggerations and misconceptions.

Date: 2008

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:jecper:v:22:y:2008:i:1:p:199-216

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.aeaweb.org/subscribe.html

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Perspectives is edited by David Autor

More articles in Journal of Economic Perspectives from American Economic Association
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by Christopher F. Baum ().