Developing countries and US agriculture

He focuses his remarks on developments in the production, consumption, and trade of a set of commodities which the developing countries and the United States both produce and in which the developing countries have a significant export interest. Emphasis is placed on the role of U.S. agricultural trade policies as they affect the world market potential for these products. The major competitive commodities which have been or are likely to be in the trade picture for both the United States and the developing countries are grains, oilseeds and products, cotton, fruits and vegetables, sugar, tobacco and meats. Our concern is not just with the raw forms of these products, but also with semiprocessed and processed products based on them. For many agricultural products, the degree of trade protection employed by the United States is higher for processed than for raw products. This means that present trading practices by the United States discourage processing of agricultural products in the developing countries; this is an important trade issue of our time.