The Issue of Precision Agriculture in International Trade: An Analysis in Terms of Subsidies

At the present time, world agriculture is influenced by a set of new technologies grouped under the generic name of precision agriculture (PA). Based on a study of the cotton sector, this article examines the effects of adopting PA with regard to international trade. We examine whether PA can contribute to the further destabilization of the terms of trade between countries in Central and West Africa (CWA) and Northern countries. We show that PA can be used by Northern countries at the expense of CWA, since it is used to implement strategic commercial policies based on subsidies. These policies are made more credible by the fact that international authorities cannot easily condemn them.

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