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Abstract
The aim of this contribution is to examine how the French and the
German positions on agricultural policy have developed since the
foundation of the EEC and what the driving forces were behind. The
“general consensus” underlying the EEC treaty, and according to
which the common market would be “conquered” by France in the
case of the classical agricultural products, could not be translated
into practice; for what emerged for these products was not a customs
union but a “price support union”. As a consequence French
intra-community agricultural exports had to be redirected to the
world market. Thus initial positive French income transfers via intracommunity
trade were transformed into transfers from the EC
budget, an evolution that can be interpreted as a “modification of
the general consensus”. However, this was not to last long either
since the policy of price support, plus the unlimited obligation for
the state to purchase any production surpluses, were bound to
cause increasing budget costs and an aggravation of international
trade conflicts. The fact that in the ensuing discussions on the CAP
France favored price cuts while the Federal Republic pleaded for
quantitative restrictions, is explained with the help of a partial
analysis model. Moreover, the article also explains further divergences
between the French and the German agricultural policy positions.
In so doing, account is also taken of (a) the modifications of
the German positions after reunification and (b) the new accents
that have appeared in French agricultural policy after the change in
government in 1997.