The Early Stage of US Antitrust and Trade Regulation in the Agricultural Sector

Abstract

The article aims to analyse the legal history of antitrust and trade regulation provisions exclusively applying to the agricultural sector in the United States of America. Through the analysis of legal history, the article attempts to explore whether the agricultural sector and agricultural producers have always been in a privileged situation with regard to competition policy and regulation, and if they have, what the main impetus was for adopting agriculture-specific antitrust and trade regulation provisions. Within the study, first, I examine the historical antecedents of the Sherman Act. Second, I turn my attention to the first agricultural antitrust exemption under antitrust laws, namely, to Section 6 of the Clayton Act. Third, I present the historical aspects of the „Magna Charta” of agricultural cooperative marketing, the Capper-Volstead Act, then, fourth, I briefly map further federal trade regulation laws which regulate agricultural markets. In the end, I conclude.