International Commodity Policy

Originally published in 1993, this book provides an excellent analysis of commodity policies internationally during the late 20th Century. It discusses 2 major methods of market regulation: price stabilization – based on buffer stocks or export quotas – and compensatory finance. The authors analyse whether major commodity policies have reached their primary objectives and to what extent they have had economic side effects. Discussion of more general policy issues centres around three international commodity agreements for coffee, rubber and cocoa. The authors also look at the policies adopted by individual nations to regulate commodity trading and assess to what extent they have reached their objectives. A discussion of the intervention of the International Monetary Fund and STABEX assesses the degree of stability they can provide in a highly volatile and variable environment. Nearly 30 years later, volatile world commodity markets are still a major issue in the policy dialogue. Although topics, policy instruments and concepts have changed, this book remains a fundamental contribution to the study of international commodity policy. It will be of great interest to students of commodity policy and economic development and economists in national and international organizations dealing with market stabilization.

Contributed articles.

With the dramatic changes in the global political scene, many developing countries are re-evaluating their economic and political priorities. This reappraisal scrutinizes their dependence on specific commodities and the crisis into which this market has been thrown in the last decade. This work relates the main theoretical and empirical issues in the collapse in commodity prices since 1980--a major cause of the Third World economic crises--to perceived conflicts of interest between developed and developing countries. Maizels continues his study by discussing the elements of a new approach to an effective commodity policy for the future. He includes coverage of such major problems as the impact of commodity instability on the global economy, market structure, as well as synthetics and diversification. This study will be of interest to academics and students of development economics and international trade as well as to policymakers in developing countries.

Originally published in 1984, at a time when international commodity control was brought from the periphery to the centre of international trade policy, this book provided a new and more comprehensive approach to, and an analytical appraisal of, international commodity controls, from their origins in the 1920s to their widespread acceptance as an important element in international trade policy in the 1970s. The first part establishes the economic and institutional background against which controls were introduced and includes sections on a wide range of issues such as the changing structure of world commodity trade and the roles of GATT, UNCTAD and the former EEC. Part 2 considers the principal control mechanisms which have been used at the international level and review the national counterparts and alternatives. Part 3 assesses on a commodity-by-commodity basis how the control worked in practice. It covers all the international commodity agreements to 1982 and also considers examples of raw material cartels.