Agricultural trade has become an integral part of world agriculture. During the 1970s, the real growth in world agricultural trade was phenomenal. For example, the value of U. S. agricultural exports alone increased more than fivefold during this period. In April, 1978, a small group of West Coast agricultural economists (Hillman, Josling, Sarris, Schmitz, King, and McCalla) met to form what is now called the International Trade Consortium which is financed, in part, by the U. S. Department of Agriculture and Agriculture Canada. One of the products of this project was a book published in 1979 by A. F. McCalla and T. E. Josling (editors), Imperfect Markets in Agricultural Trade, Allenheld, Osmun and Co., 1981. In the same vein, this book is a result of an International Trade Consortium meeting held in Berkeley, California, in the early 1980s.