In a normative way, the role of the market, as well for domestic exchanges as for international trade, calls into question the notion of economic policy. Particularly for agriculture, total liberalization raises specific problems because of market failures which legitimate public intervention. For instance, wholesome food cannot be considered as a simple good. Consequently, governmental policy intervention may be justified.

In the medium term, we can estimate that supply will correctly fit demand. But in the long term, total balance is more questionable since emergent countries like China, Brazil, but also India, change global prospects in terms of demand and supply, and trade flows. More acute analysis of these new stakeholders become necessary.

But, in the short term, the liberalization process has important impacts, and to assess them simulation models are used. Keeping in mind their limits, the consequences of liberalization on the different countries of the world are estimated. Lastly, the shift from distorsive forms of support to decoupled support and the reaction of consumers in face of globalization are examined.

Pierre Rainelli, Director of research in Economics at the Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA), has led many studies about Regional and Environmental Economics before working on trade liberalization issues.

Pierre Lepetit, Executive Vice-President of Ifri and Author of the conclusion of this book, is interested in markets regulation issues for 25 years. He has followed the agricultural negotiation of the Uruguay Round in the early 1990s.

This book joins the contributions of many international specialists of agricultural issues: Claude Aubert, Jean-Pierre Bertrand, Xavier Beulin, Jean-Christophe Bureau, Xinshen Diao, Alexandre Gohin, Estelle Gozlan, Hervé Guyomard, Sébastien Jean, Bernard Lehmann, Ma Xiaohe, Alan Matthews, Terry Roe, Anil Sharma and Agapi Somwaru.