AGRICULTURE IN THE LATIN-AMERICAN OPEN-ECONOMY - INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW

In May 1989 a conference was convened by the International Food Policy Research Institute and the UN Economic Commission for Latin America (CEPAL) at CEPAL headquarters in Santiago to examine the relationships between macroeconomic and trade policy, and agricultural incentives and growth in Latin America. Selected papers presented at the conference are assembled in this special issue of Food Policy in abbreviated form. An overview of these papers is given in this introduction, and the linkages between unsustainable levels of government spending and industrial protection on the one hand, and agricultural incentives on the other, are outlined.