Abstract

GONZALEZ-ESTRADA, Adrián  and  ORRANTIA-BUSTOS, Manuel Alejandro. Agricultural subsidies in Mexico. Agric. Téc. Méx [online]. 2006, vol.32, n.3, pp.323-331. ISSN 0568-2517.

The Mexican agriculture confronts serious problems and challenges, many voices demand for more subsidies and supports from the government. The prevailing idea is that our agriculture is not supported in the same way as it is in developed countries and it is argued that countries we trade with, subsidize much more their agriculture and that for that reason, we are an able to compete internationally. The objectives of this research were: to analyze the temporal behaviour of the total amount of the subsidies to the Mexican agriculture during 1986-2003; to compare the agricultural subsidies in Mexico to those of our main commercial partners, and to evaluate propositions supporting the idea of abandonment of the Mexican rural sector by the State, the lack of protection to our agriculture and the insufficiency of agricultural subsidies. In opposition to the belief of the majority of Mexican economists, and after the calculation of the percentage of the production value that corresponds to subsidies (EPS%) it was concluded that our country's relative level of subsidies to its agriculture is similar to those in the United States of America and Canada, its main commercial partners, and less than those in the European Union and Japan. Rather than to increase agricultural subsidies, Mexico should invest considerably more in all the support services required to promote the intensification and productivity of the agricultural sector.

Keywords : Agricultural subsidies; international trade; productive supports; protection.

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