Every five years the United States rewrites its farm legislation. This will again be the case in 1990. Such is the importance of this action that it will set the trend for U.S. and world agriculture for the next five years. This is the case because the U.S. is the undisputed world leader in agriculture. The most important goals the U.S. Farm Bill will address this time are: the farm economy, the budget restrictions, government interference, stocks, U.S. competitiveness and environmental and food safety issues. Each of these goals will also probably affect world agriculture and South Africa to some degree. Furthermore, owing to the very important influence that the U.S. Farm Bill and the GATT negotiations have on each other and the importance of the GATT to South African agriculture South Africa has to analyse its own position. The U.S Farm Bill will affect South African agriculture whether the changes concern general matters or specific industries.