Travel and Personal

Leave of Absence & Agricultural Subsidies

By Dweep Chanana ⋅ September 11, 2007 ⋅  Email this post ⋅ Post a comment

I am always surprised at how many people land on this blog, often from very diverse and intelligent sources, to give me extremely incisive input. Considering their time spent here, I consider it only fair to mention that I will not be updating this blog very regularly for the next two weeks. In that time I will be traveling in the “Greater China” region, in Taiwan, Hangzhou, and Shanghai.

It is six years since my last visit to China and I look forward to be amazed by it. While much of this is officially “vacation”, I will spend time meeting people to do some groundwork and gauge the business environment. If you have suggestions on things to do and people to see, particularly in the Internet business, drop me a note.

In the meantime, here is some interesting reading on the subject of agriculture, supporting my argument on the IEB that India should not demand cuts in subsidies in the US:

• Agricultural Subsidies versus Market Access: A world bank report arguing, based on econometric analysis, that market access and import tariffs are vastly more important than agricultural subsidies for transfering benefits to poor country producers. By its calculation, up to 93% of the support to rich world agricultural producers comes not from subsidies but from import tariffs. Reason enough not to ask for cuts in US subsidies.
• Biofuelling the Food Crises: A biofuel boom presents ostensibly environmentally-friendly implications, yet leads some analysts to predict a food crisis for the world’s most vulnerable populations.
• Global Agriculture: How much liberalisation is needed? (pdf) A summary report on the current negotiating positions of major countries in the current round of trade negotiations, on issues surrounding subsidies, market access, and non-trade concerns.