SEMAINE D'ÉTUDE SUR LE ROLE DE L’ANALYSE ECONOMETRIQUE ETC. 116)
agricultural output, the export earnings of the low income coun-
tries are adversely affected. It is sometimes argued that the
agricultural policies and the related import and export policies
of the industrial nations have little effect on tropical products
and, since most underdeveloped areas are tropical, very little
effect on the exports of underdeveloped areas. It is true that
most of the restrictive measures undertaken by industrial coun-
tries affect cereals, which are grown mainly in temperate zones
and in developed nations. But sugar is heavily protected in
most industrial countries and cane sugar is a tropical product.
And the grain policies of industrial countries do have an im-
pact upon the market for rice, which is primarily a tropical
product. Underdeveloped areas are a major source of ve-
getable fats and oils, which are subject to import duties in
some industrial countries. Sugar, rice, fats and oils are major
sources of foreign exchange for many underdeveloped areas;
the ability of such countries to import capital equipment and
other requirements for economic growth are affected directly
by the agricultural and trade policies of the industrial nations.
In summary and stated in broad terms, development plans
or policies for agriculture are primarily concerned with achiev-
ing a rate of growth of output that is approximately the same
as the rate of growth of demand. In the underdeveloped areas
of the world and in Eastern Europe, the plans or policies must
concentrate upon measures that will increase the agricultural
output growth rate. Obviously this must be achieved with an
expenditure of resources that permits attaining other important
objectives. In the United States the policies should create a
situation in which output growth is no greater than the growth
of demand and at the same time achieve a level of return to
resources engaged in agriculture approximately equal to the
returns received by comparable resources engaged elsewhere.
In Western Europe the substantial imports of food give the
region the choice of expanding food output to suppl te re
‘16, Johnson - pag. 21
