Event Summary
The Institute for International Economics and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs hosted a meeting at the Institute September 27, 2006 to examine US agricultural policy and present new reforms to both resuscitate the Doha Round and ensure the long-term competitiveness of the US agricultural sector.
The event served as the Washington release of the Chicago Council's report on critical issues in agricultural policy. The program focused on the Council's recommendations that are most important to the trade negotiations themselves and to building domestic political support for the Round. These include new approaches to domestic support programs that focus on non-distorting market-oriented risk management tools, transition measures for producers to protect them from investment loss, and supporting emerging research on biofuels.
The report's co-chairs are Catherine Bertini, Former Executive Director of the World Food Program at the UN, August Schumacher, Former Undersecretary of Agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services at USDA, and Robert Thompson, Gardner Chair in Agriculture Policy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Following their presentations of the highlights of the Council's report was a panel discussion with two former Secretaries of Agriculture, Clayton Yeutter and Mike Espy.