Brussels, 03/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - According to two reports by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to be made public on Friday, trade in agricultural products should develop and world prices increase until 2006. Indeed, agricultural products would emerge from a lengthy period of recession. However, market prospects for some animal products could be less optimistic, especially in the European Union, "which has not finished with foot-and-mouth or BSE and their economic consequences", says the OECD in a press release.
Given such prospects, the OECD recommends that "governments take advantage of these market prospects for define agricultural policies enabling them to achieve their economic and social goals while reducing to the minimum the level of distortion of the latter on production and trade". Estimated at $327 billion (354 billion euro), or 1.3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the OECD area, the support and protection granted to farmers in these countries remained high in 2000. The share of aid to farmers in farm revenue was 34% in 2000 for all the countries of the OECD, 22% in the United States and 38% in the European Union. According to the OECD, these results show the ineffectiveness of the agricultural reforms undertaken in each of the countries.
These two reports, entitled "Agricultural Policies in OECD Countries - Monitoring and evaluation 2001" and "Agricultural prospects of the OECD 2000-2006" analyse the level of support and assess the prospects of agricultural policies and cereals, oilseed, meat and dairy product markets until 2006.