Where to for Agricultural Policies in East Asia?

Abstract

Two decades ago a study on The Political Economy of Agricultural Protection: East Asia in International Perspective (Anderson, Hayami and Others 1986) provided estimates of the growth of nominal rates of protection to farmers in Japan, Korea and Taiwan from the early 20th century. When Japan switched from being a small net exporter of food to becoming dependent on rice imports, farmers and their supporters called for rice import controls. Their calls were matched by equally vigorous calls from manufacturing and commercial groups for unrestricted food trade, since the price of rice at that time was a major determinant of real wages in the non-farm sector