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Australian/Cairns Group Perspective: Southern Agriculture and the World Economy: The Multilateral Trade Negotiations
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Shires, David |
| Copyright Year | 1988 |
| Abstract | Last week was Australia's 200th birthday. ers, and highly ranked in beef and veal, lamb, When the rebels in America won what they wheat, and sugar. We sell 80 percent of our called their war of independence, Britain lost food and fiber overseas. This has made our her penal colonies in the Carolinas and looked farmers and our government acutely aware of around for replacements. The first colonial world market conditions and of the interrefleet arrived in Australia on January 26, 1788, lationship of domestic and international agriand included, along with 700 convicts, 44 cultural policies. An inescapable fact has been sheep and 6 cattle. If Britain had defeated her that sometimes world prices are high and American colonists, then the history of both other times they are low. As well, the longAustralia and Louisiana would likely have term real prices for agricultural products been very different. The French flag might be often appear to be in decline. flying today over both Sydney and New Our farmers, like yours, have thus had to Orleans. face the twin evils of price variability and inWe have our own flag now, of course. We come decline. For some time in the European also have around 170 million sheep and 23 milCommunity (EC) and Japan, and now in the lion cattle and have really been more successU.S., farmers have faced these problems by ful at growing animals than people. Our relying on funds from taxpayers and conhuman population of 16 million is spread over sumers. In general, however, Australian a land area about the same as the continental farmers have abandoned this approach. One U.S. (i.e., about 3 million square miles). The reason is simply that our treasury is not big main reason is a lack of water. Over 70 perenough to finance large direct subsidies. cent of Australia is arid, in the sense that But there are other reasons. Our farmers there is not enough rainfall to support the have become much more aware of macroecofarming of either crops or pasture. The sole nomic factors. They realize that the exchange agricultural use of that land is extensive grazrate and the inflation rate can affect their real ing, where the animals range over large areas net returns more than the nominal price. They of sparse native vegetation. These properties have also been at the forefront of demands for can be thousands of square miles in size, and cutting our budget deficit, a stance which is yet the land itself has almost no economic hardly compatible with increased subsidizavalue other than that of the animals themtion. Incidentally, partly as a result of these selves. One result is that Australia is a very pressures, Australia this year will have a low-cost producer of the products of extensive small budget surplus. grazing. Our aridity is in stark contrast to the We also watched some of our protected inU.S. I have heard that the flow of the nearby dustries, such as dairy, suffer a merciless Mississippi over five days equals all the flow decline when times grew hard. Many of our in all the rivers in Australia over a year. farmers drew the conclusion that the protecWe also have a strip of land-called the tion had merely encouraged a high cost of pro"wheat/sheep belt"-which is usually producduction, which made the eventual fall even tive and is where we grow most of our wool harder. Incidentally, I have heard Secretary and crops. Although not major producers, we Lyng make similar comments about the are major agricultural exporters: the world's dangers of U.S. farm programs setting in celeading wool, mutton, and live sheep exportment a high cost structure in U. S. grain in- |
| Starting Page | 69 |
| Ending Page | 71 |
| Page Count | 3 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0081305200025656 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/29711/files/20010069.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.1017/s0081305200025656 |
| Volume Number | 20 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
