Abstract
Since the creation of the European Community and the single European market by the Treaties of Rome, the modalities of a common market of foodstuffs had been a central concern in European affairs. As Robert Ackrill points out, "the CAP is one of the most pervasive of all EU policies, one of the most infamous and perhaps one of the most misunderstood" (Ackrill, 2000, p. 16). First designed in order to avoid future food shortages that had been known during the Second World War, and to protect an agricultural sector vital for the well functioning of European States, the Common Agricultural Policy eventually came to surpass its initials objectives. Thus by the 1970s, Europe had transformed its status of net importer of foodstuffs to become a net exporter toward third world countries (Hennis, 2008, p.331). Since then, market protectionism, production of surpluses and export of subsidized agricultural products started affecting the global food chain. In a increasingly globalized world, the effects of CAP's instruments prevented market access by the use of import tariffs barriers and distorted global trade by the use of export subsidies, became unbearable for other countries.
