(1) Inelastic request. If narrow substitutes are available, it is certain that market-priced assistance for individual products will have immediate and very detrimental effects. The presence of synthetic rubber explains the total absence of a post-war agreement for the natural product; Agreements restricting the use of the agreement for individual olive trees are excluded by the existence of a large list of alternative seeds and by competition with butter; but since 1937 sugar has borrowed a continuous succession of agreements. Commodity agreements are agreements between producer and consumer countries to stabilize markets and increase average prices. Such agreements are common in many markets, including the coffee, tea and sugar markets. Since the end of the Second World War, agreements have been successfully negotiated on wheat, sugar, tin, coffee and olive oil. The 1949 and 1953 International Wheat Agreements (IWA) and the Post-War International Sugar Agreements (ISA) are prototypes of two forms of commodity agreements – the multilateral treaty and the variable export quota. Land prices and sugar caps have been set and, for the most part, imposed by the export regulations authorised by Member States; the sugar agreement also provided that stocks held by exporters were not higher or lower than the percentages indicated by export quotas. A very different instrumentality was used for wheat. Importers agreed to accept certain quantities when the price fell to the minimum level set in the agreement and exporters agreed to disclose certain quantities to Member States when the contract price was set. In terms of prices between the ground and the ceiling, the wheat agreement should be largely ineffective.
The Tin Agreement (ITA) gradually set higher price thresholds for which a buffer storage agency (a) could purchase, (b) buy, c) could not buy or sell without special authorization, d) sold and (e) was required to sell. The agreement also provided for the introduction of export controls after the accumulation of the cushion exceeded the specified amounts. The main sanction of the coffee agreement, negotiated in 1962 at a long conference, was the certificate of origin to be required of importing countries in order to limit their recipe to exporters who choose to “do it alone”. The International Tropical Woods Agreement (ITTA) is often referred to as a “hybrid agreement” because it combines a traditional trade agreement on raw materials with sustainable tropical forest management objectives. ITTA has established the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), a 59-member intergovernmental organization, which together represents about 80 percent of the world`s tropical forests and 90% of the annual tropical timber trade. ITTO promotes market transparency through the collection, analysis and dissemination of data on the production and trade of tropical timber; supports the development, funding and implementation of projects and other measures to strengthen the sustainable management and exploitation capacity of tropical forests; and facilitates intergovernmental consultation and international cooperation on trade and exploitation of tropical timber and sustainable management of its resource base. Controlling the market price of certain raw materials has adverse effects both politically and economically. The rigour of the export quotas introduced under the tin agreement from December 1957 to September 1960 appears to have had a long-term effect on production capacity; When restrictions on the export of tin were eased, production was unable to accelerate with a strong recovery in consumption and, therefore, this product is a classic example of the irreversible supply curve. One possible lesson of Fidel Castro`s Cuban experience is that there is a subtle, unopened form or form of control of economic markets and a degree of political tyranny.
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