There a tremendous amount of publicity about the U.S. grain export agreements with the U.S.S.R. in 1975 and China in 1980. The threat of not renewing the agreement with Russia, which would have terminated on October 1 this year, was considered by some to be a heavy penalty—both to the United States and the Soviets. Virtually no economic analysis has been done, however, that looks behind the publicity to determine the actual economic consequences of the treaties. This article assesses the major economic consequences of these agreements.