From 1986 to 1987, Rausser served as Senior Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA). Rausser prepared what has been described as a classic for the 1987 Economic Report to the President entitled, “Toward Agricultural Policy Reform.” This chapter recognized that the benefits generated from U.S. agricultural policy programs do not reach those most in need. Moreover, the chapter brought to light the distortions that existed on world markets and the food commodity dumping activities across the globe concentrated in LDCs, sourced with excess supply from the U.S. and European Union, created strong disincentives for agricultural productivity. This chapter was singled out by members of Congress for its important contribution when the chairman of the CEA presented the report before Congress. The chapter gained wide circulation as making an effective case of the need to reform agricultural policies in the United States and around the world.
From this classical publication and his work at the CEA, Rausser was selected to orchestrate the 1987 OECD ministerial meetings to move the Uruguay round of the GATT negotiations to include for the very first time both agriculture and food. Rausser suggested that reform would only work if all major countries agreed to curtail their subsidies and reduce their trade barriers; that unilateral action would fail for political reasons. Yeutter agreed with and took this advice and the United States insisted that agriculture be a key component of the next global trade negotiating round under GATT.
Clayton Yeutter, then the U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador and soon to be U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, singled out Gordon’s contributions in getting agricultural issues on the negotiating agenda and orchestrating the ministerial meetings to move the Uruguay round forward. Yeutter is reported to have said, “Food and agriculture might well have not been included in the Uruguay Round but for Rausser’s contributions.” The Uruguay Round was successfully completed in 1993 and the Agreement on Agriculture is one of the crowning achievements of that agreement. For this leadership, Gordon Rausser received the USDA Superior Service award in 2000 for outstanding accomplishments in the areas of agricultural public policy research and formulation.
Yeutter later sought to have Rausser become the chief economist at the Department of Agriculture. Instead, Rausser’s prominence among policymakers and commitment to food security resulted in his being selected as Chief Economist of the Agency for International Development.