The 2002 U.S. farm bill has been widely criticized for increasing subsidies with detrimental effects on competing agricultural producers abroad and for undermining U.S. leadership in achieving liberalized world agricultural trade.

The gains to developing countries from agricultural reform in developed countries is found to benefit most, even the net food importers, although the gains vary depending on a country’s trade pattern.

There is a continuing debate about the role of changes in trade on the evolution of relative wages particularly the skilled-unskilled wage gap.

The question whether production flexibility payments to farmers are likely to be minimally trade distorting is considered in an inter-temporal and economy wide context.

Two empirical regularities in the beef-cattle sector have been observed for a long time. First, the time-series for cattle stock exhibits strong cyclicity with a period of several years.