الفهرس 
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Abstract
INTRODUCTION
Agriculture is the principal source of food and some ssential raw materials for industrial development. It accounts ’or almost 20% of the gross domestic production, for about 20% f export earnings and employs 32% of t he workforce, in 1989/90 n Egypt. The average annual value of the agricultural exports amounted to about U.S.$ 670 million over the period 1975-90. cotton, the main crop, accounts for over two-third of the value of the agricultural vegetable crops and ruit make up the balance. Food imports increased rapidly during Ie last years causing a wide agricultural trade deficit. The rerage annual value of food imports amounted to about U.8.$ 2164
Ilion over the period 1975-90. Wheat and wheat flour account r 40% of the val ue of food imports, whi Ie maize, tea and others ke up the balance.
Foreign trade always plays an important role to achieve )nomical development for almost all countries. However, Egypt,
one of the many developed countries, is still suffering in :h goa I from t he gap be tween i ncreas ing food impor t s by a high :e compared wi th agricul tural exports. This problem Isequent ly affects the Egypt ian payments balance, which is lsidered as a reason of the difficulties faced by economical icy. That explains the importance of the study subject.
Other fact of importance is, the agriculture commodities in ernational trade represent nearly one-quarter by value of the a I wo rid t r ad e ( B . E . H i I I and I n g e r s en t, 1977 ) . A g r i cui t u r a I )rts are an important source of increasing foreign exchange lings in many countries. In Egypt, it was about 20% of the L1 national exports in 1989/90. In some developing countries r are virtually the sole source of export profits. The main ,rters of agricultural products are the high income, developed ,tries where both price and income elasticities of demand are