Agricultural Policy and U.S.-Taiwan Trade (review)

Reviews 445 D. Gale Johnson and Chi-ming Hou with Yu-kang Mao, Chaw-hsia Tu, Tracy C. Miller, and Chi-Chu Chou. Agricultural Policy and U.S.-Taiwan Trade. Washington, D.C.: AEI Press, 1993. xvii, 343 pp. Hardcover $34.75, ISBN 0-8447-3827-1. Western scholars are endeavoring to learn more about key elements of the socalled "Taiwan miracle." Limited sources in the English language regarding important areas of economic development in Taiwan, notably agriculture, have restricted the ability ofa broad range ofscholars to understand more deeply the evolution, problems, and prospects ofTaiwan's economic success. This book goes a long way toward filling the gap in English-language scholarship on issues in Taiwan's agricultural development. But the book is much more than an assessment ofTaiwan's agriculture. The essays in this compendium dealing directly with Taiwan are set offby essays offering comparisons with U.S. agricultural practices and policies over time, and essays dealing with a number ofsalient issues in international agricultural trade and related policies and practices. One ofthe key goals ofthe volume is to provide thorough comparative assessments ofagricultural development and policies in Taiwan and the United States. The authors also review the effects of these changing policies and practices on the societies of the respective countries. After an overview/introduction by D. Gale Johnson, the reader is treated to four essays detailing, respectively, structure and change in the agriculture of Taiwan and the United States and current agricultural problems and policies in both countries. The Taiwan essays here will be particularly helpful for scholars looking for cogent assessments of the evolution, problems, and prospects of Taiwan's agriculture. The next section deals with the heavy influence ofdomestic politics on the agricultural policies, especially agricultural trade policies, ofboth countries. Indeed , Tracy Miller offers a global view ofwhat is called the political economy of agricultural policies; this is followed by two essays focused, respectively, on how politics has affected agricultural policies in Taiwan and both agricultural and economic policies in the United States. The concluding chapter of the section assesses how these political forces feed into the trade policies ofboth countries and influence the trade conflicts that we have seen in recent years. In part as an effort to improve understanding and possibly find ways out of© 1996 by University ^ u.S.-Taiwan and other international trade difficulties, five authors explore problems and prospects for liberalizing trade in a multilateral setting. D. Gale Johnson provides two essays looking at the history and prospects of the GATT agricultural negotiations and the effects of trade liberalization on world agricultural ofHawai'i Press 446 China Review International: Vol. 3, No. 2, Fall 1996 prices. He and others go on to assess how agricultural policies would need to be modified under an international regime of more free trade, and they assess the specific adjustments that would be required in agricultural practices in the United States, Taiwan, and elsewhere. Johnson and Chi-ming Hou conclude with a review ofwhat they see as a new consensus that has emerged in U.S.-Taiwan agricultural trade disputes. Overall, the reader is left with a sense of the many topics that must be considered in coming to grips with agricultural policies and disputes between Taiwan and the United States and/or other countries. These policies and practices have deep and multifaceted roots, have serious implications for the societies of the respective countries, and are important concerns ofboth entrepreneurs and government officials throughout the world. This book is based on papers presented at a conference in Taiwan in 1991, but the material was brought up to date for publication in 1993. Unlike many related compendia, this volume holds together well. The essays are clearly written and well organized. The scholarship is very impressive, with sometimes overwhelming amounts of data in very useful tables. The topics of the individual essays are often of interest only to a more specialized audience, but nonspecialist scholars with a deep interest in Taiwan would do well to read carefully the essays dealing specifically with Taiwan's agricultural experience and its trade conflicts with the United States. Robert Sutter Congressional Research Service, The Library of Congress ...