近年来,美国咄咄逼人地通过签署双边和多边协议来达到开放贸易的目的。尽管这些协议内容广泛地包括了商品和劳务贸易的自由化,但都没有农业贸易的自由化更为困难重重的了。在美国和其它许多国家,不仅通过关税和配额来对付国外竞争,而且还通过高度补贴以达到保护农业的目的。这些保护政策使得某些生产成本相对高的地区的农业得以生存下去,但却增加了食物的总成本,而且还减少了国民生产总值(GNP)。许多经济分析家们承认,农业补贴和保护主义扭曲了价格并且保护了那些本应该被逐出竞争市场的成本较高的生产者。尽管自 In recent years, the United States has aggressively signed bilateral and multilateral agreements to achieve open trade. Although the contents of these agreements broadly included the liberalization of trade in goods and services, none of the liberalization of agricultural trade was more difficult. In the United States and many other countries, foreign competition is dealt with not only through tariffs and quotas, but also through high subsidies to protect agriculture. These protection policies have enabled agriculture in some areas with relatively high production costs to survive, but have increased the total cost of food, and have also reduced gross national product (GNP). Many economic analysts admit that agricultural subsidies and protectionism have distorted prices and protected the more costly producers who should have been driven out of the competitive market. Despite self