Study Shows Agriculture Well Protected

Researchers in Texas Tech’s Cotton Economics Research Institute have studied agricultural subsidies and protection applied by 21 countries to seven major crops: corn, cotton, rice, sorghum, soybeans, sugar and wheat. What they found is that developing countries are equally, if not more, prone to protecting their agricultural sectors.

The resulting report, Crop Subsidies in Foreign Countries: Different Paths to Common Goals, found that while policy tools employed by governments may differ, agricultural
support is increasing not only in industrialized countries such as the U.S. or Australia, but in developing economies such as China or Brazil.

The study’s authors say there is a wide variety of subsidy and protection instruments in place. Researchers found that developing countries employ higher tariff protection than their industrialized peers, and also tend to supplement their price support program with input subsidies, which are excluded from World Trade Organization support calculations but still distort trade.