為何台灣居於部份農業貿易政策保護之位置? 本研究之目的係為了能解釋此原因。此可以被台灣歷史之理論上所施行的肉類貿易之例子所解釋。此農業貿易保護政策可被定義為選擇性之貿易保護。 / Why does Taiwan have in place a partially protectionist agricultural trade policy？ The goal of the research is to find a causal explanation to this question by looking at the case of meat trade. It can be explained under the premises of historical institutionalism theory. Its agricultural trade policy can be defined as selectively protectionist.

農業是人類最基本的經濟活動。儘管隨著科技及社會的發達，農業在一國的總產值或就業人口所佔比例逐漸降低，然而在國際貿易的舞台上，農業貿易的重要性卻不減反增。世界貿易組織（World Trade Organization, 簡稱WTO）之杜哈發展議程（Doha Development Round, DDA）曾一度中止的原因即為各國之間對於農業貿易存在極大的分歧，尤其歐洲聯盟（European Union，簡稱歐盟） 的「共同農業政策」（Common Agricultural Policy,簡稱CAP）更是備受爭議。歐盟共同農業政策係指歐盟為其農業發展所實施包括農產品價格支持、最低保證收購價格、對歐盟境外產品實施關稅及配額等相關補貼制度。「共同農業政策」所以深具爭議，主要在於其對農業有補貼或境內支持政策造成對貿易不公與市場扭曲現象，尤其以農產品出口為大宗的發展中國家受害最深。因此，在多次談判回合中，歐盟共同農業政策常常為其他WTO會員國所詬病。在WTO逐漸成為各國無法忽視的規範力量，以及各國與歐盟的農產品貿易爭端層出不窮之下，歐盟行之有年的「共同農業政策」面臨重大調整。 / Agriculture is the basic economic activities of human beings. Though the relative size of agricultural sector has been declining as the society and technology develop, the importance of agriculture in the international trade is still growing. The Doha Development Round of the World Trade Organization had once suspended because of agriculture negotiations, on which WTO member countries could not reach agreements. Among them, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union is the most controversial. The Common Agricultural Policy combines a direct subsidy payment for crops and land which may be cultivated with price support mechanisms, including guaranteed minimum prices, import tariffs and quotas on certain goods from outside the EU. The reason why CAP is so controversial is for its high amounts on agricultural subsidies and domestic support, which amount to unfair competition and market distortion. In this regards, CAP damaged the interests of agricultural exporting country, especial those developing countries. Thus CAP had always been criticized by other WTO members in the WTO agriculture negotiation. Since WTO has become the dominant regime of international trade, and there are more and more agricultural disputes arising between EU and other WTO members, EU has to undertake substantial reform on CAP.