Abstract

One of the central themes of the Food Security Act of 1985 (FSA85) is to make the United States more competitive in exporting agricultural commodities. The means to achieve this objective include lower loan rates, marketing loan provisions, and export credits and subsidies. The comprehensive analysis of the FSA85 (Womack et. al.) has taken these programs into account in making estimates of U.S. prices, exports and other performance variables. The purpose of this paper is to focus attention on the foreign import demand and competitor supplies that underlie the U.S. export estimates and to evaluate the responsiveness of trade patterns to the changes in U.S. policies.