Multifunctional agriculture: some consequences for international trade regimes

Abstract

The debate over agricultural trade rules is marked by substantial disagreement. The paper starts by clarifying the positions. The apparent divergences stem largely from differences in assumptions—not least which relationships are assumed between the private and public goods involved. The paper analyses the implications for trade policy if private and public goods are interrelated in production and transaction costs are positive. It is shown that the core issue here is the trade‐off between precision and policy‐specific transaction costs. It is concluded that under the defined assumptions, it is not rational to opt for a single market for agricultural commodities.