ASSESSMENTS

Agriculture: Sowing the Seeds of Global Trade Competition

Aug 3, 2017 | 09:00 GMT

China will retain the upper hand in the agriculture industry as producers vie for access to the world's biggest importer.

As countries swap seats at different trade negotiating tables, one sector will be particularly well-positioned to punch above its weight: agriculture.

(JUAN MABROMATA/AFP/Getty Images)

Forecast Highlights:

  • Agriculture will continue to be a point of contention, even as global trade conversations shift toward bilateral negotiations rather than multilateral deals.
  • The United States and the European Union will seek to set and control international biotech policy and food safety regulations.
  • Nevertheless, China will retain the upper hand in the agriculture industry as producers vie for access to the world's biggest importer.

The political winds are shifting in many corners of the world, and with them, so are attitudes toward trade. The multilateral deals that came to define the global marketplace after World War II have started to sputter and stall; in their place, smaller pacts with fewer participants have begun to rise. Within this new, more compact model, the argument goes, countries are better able to home in on their core interests because there are fewer partners with which they must compromise. And though the United States may not have been the first nation to latch on to this strategy, it has certainly become the movement's poster child. ...

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