Political Economy of Distortions to Global Agricultural Markets

Primary organisation:	The University of Adelaide
Funded by:	ARC
Chief investigators:	Professor Kym Anderson, George Gollin Professor of Economics, The University of Adelaide

Project Summary

Farmers, agribusiness and governments in Australia and other food exporting nations have put enormous efforts into seeking reductions in agricultural protectionism, particularly in the past two decades via the Cairns Group in GATT/WTO negotiations but also in bilateral and regional integration initiatives. Yet levels of protection have fallen little for agriculture relative to manufacturing in high income countries, and in some newly industrializing countries that indicator has been rising. Improving our understanding as to why that is the case will ensure Australia gets a better return from its investment in that area of commercial diplomacy.