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By Steven E. Sanderson

From the Abstract

U.S. agricultural relations with Mexico have become more important in recent years, due to the increasing importance of basic grains imports to the Mexican food system, the ascendance of Mexico as the leading Third World trade partner of the United States, and the significant trade disputes that have complicated the "special relationship" between the two countries. In 1982 and 1983 the growing agricultural relationship suffered further difficulties, when Mexico slipped into a major economic crisis affecting its import capacity, and, ultimately, its ability to buy food for its population. The U.S. response to the Mexican crisis focused on the immediate needs of the export market, but failed to address critical questions of the bilateral relationship, in the context of general international trade and trade-finance dilemmas.

This paper concerns itself with a description of the structural and policy framework of U.S.-Mexican agricultural relations, the institutional setting of U.S. agricultural policy, and the complications of crisis response in U.S. policy toward Mexico. The principal argument of the paper is that the United States and Mexico view agricultural relations differently along a number of dimensions. The United States is market-oriented and prefers a low state profile; Mexico has had significant state intervention in agricultural growth and trade for decades. The United States views agricultural relations as a trade matter; Mexico sees the bilateral relationship as part of a linked set of issues relating to food security and agripower. The United States links agricultural relations and the Mexican economic "bailout" package of 1982-83 to general trade issues of "graduation" and institutional participation in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Mexico rejects this linkage, as well as the general institutional environment of U.S. trade policy.
 

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