In recent years there has been much interest in the economic rise of East Asia. However, little attention has been paid to the agricultural sector helping to underpin that industrial and commercial development. Agriculture has now become the focus of increasingly bitter economic disputes, especially over protection and the use of import tariffs. This study describes and analyzes agriculture's contribution to the East Asian model of development and the reasons behind the dramatic rise in agricultural protection. The authors employ case studies from Japan, Taiwan and South Korea that cover the...