both exporting and importing countries. They should also provide for co-ordinated
measures influencing consumption, internal price levels and related commercial
and fiscal policies, in addition to measures relating directly to the regulation of
exports and imports. Such co-ordination called for a commodity-by-commodity
approach of a broader kind. In this connection, international commodity consulta-
tions were useful even when they did not result in any formalized commodity
agreement. With increasing emphasis on the importance of commodity export
earning for the viability of developing countries, such consultations had an
important role to play.
the world commodity problem in all its complexity. An attack on a single front
could only reach limited objectives. Instead, there were a number of ways in which
a genuine effort could produce useful results. What was needed was `a concerted
attack on a number of fronts', including: long-term lending and aid as part of
a comprehensive development programme; compensatory finance; international
agreements for the regulation of production, co-ordinated planning of the creation
of new capacity, and guaranteed access to markets; long-term conditional and
non-conditional individual commodity purchasing agreements, linked to discus-
sions on trade, aid and development planning, all of which should be pursued
`simultaneously and with vigour'. Such was the challenge as seen at the beginning
of the 1960s.
instructive, and the most directly related to the achievement of world food
security. A series of international wheat conferences was held in the 1930s and
1940s (IJAA, 1949). The first international meeting to deal exclusively with the
economic problems of wheat was held in London in 1930. This meeting, at which
only representatives of exporting countries were present, considered a system of
export quotas as a means of relieving the depressed wheat price situation but no
agreement was reached. In 1933, when wheat prices had dropped to an all-time
low point, the first International Wheat Agreement was signed by representatives
of 9 exporting and 13 importing countries. This agreement was of the export quota
type. A global quota of 550 million bushels was allocated among the exporters,
and various arrangements were established with the aim of assuring supplies of
wheat, later expanded to cover all grains, to importing countries and markets
for exporting countries at equitable and stable prices (IWC, 1974). The agree-
ment collapsed during its first year of operation when one exporter exceeded its
quota. At the fourth wheat conference, which met in Washington, DC from July
1941 to April 1942, agreement was reached to establish an International Wheat
Council, later changed to the International Grains Council, to facilitate continuous
dialogue, which was temporarily based in Washington, DC before being moved
to its permanent location in London, UK, where it remains.