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Abstract
The new Common Agricultural Policy, which is announced, has a revolutionary character. It consists of a sharp reduction of supported prices, the present policy being replaced by a complex system of degressive aids, according to the cultivated area. Other aids are aimed to the protection of nature, to the survival of small family farms and to the reinforcement of the structural policy (enlargement of farms). The analysis of these proposals shows that the new policy would lead to a situation even farther from economic rationality than the present one, because of extensification of agriculture, acompanied by the preservation of a high number of farm people presentation of the problem of interregional competition in agriculture leads to the same conclusion. Finally, it should not be forgotten that the present objective of production limitation is likely to be questioned in the future. As for sugarbeet and sugar, recent studies on production costs confirm the superiority of France in this field. A policy of economic rationality would lead to an increase of the part of Franced in the European output. It would be harmful if anew policy results in the opposite situation