Tropical belts' advantage
Allow me, please, to extend the idea of advantage of the tropical belt. The industrial basis of industrialized countries is being eroded. As industry moves out in search of countries with higher return on investment, production is supposed to switch to the profitable service sector. Instead, they are becoming agricultural countries.
The fastest increases in production in Western Europe last decade was in heavily subsidized farming. According to the World Bank, agricultural production in most European countries grew by more than 3 percent a year from 1980 to 1985 -- led by Holland (7.8 percent), Denmark (5.1 percent) and West Germany (4 percent). Services grew by barely 2 percent a year. In little over a decade, the EU's sugar industry has turned the EU from a major net sugar importer to the world's largest exporter. Britain has shared in this unexpected trend, and seen agriculture-led growth for the first time since the early 18th century.
The EU's agricultural subsidies have negative aspects. Subsidized farmers have an artificial incentive to squeeze more crops from every acre. That may mean cultivating more land that would otherwise be woodland or bog, or using bigger doses of nitrates and pesticides. Much land is now devoted to planting beet to produce sugar which is more efficiently produced in tropical countries. Cows produce dairy products to be dumped in world markets at a loss.
In 1986 the EU had 18 million tons of cereals, one million tons of butter, 525.000 tons of skimmed milk powder and almost 800,000 tons of meat in its warehouse. Maintenance costs were put at US$10 billion -- 10 times the value of the stocks then. The EU's "aid" -- sending wheat flour and powdered milk to trouble spots such as Somalia or Rwanda -- amounts to no more than dumping agricultural surpluses. They need warehouse space for the new harvest.
The belt has advantages but it has to compete with the treasuries of Japan, the EU and the US. Subsidies to the export of agriculture products of the US and EU are around $270 billion. That is why incomes in the belts' agricultural sector do not rise.
OSVALDO COELHO
Bandung, West Java