This paper presents the main historical stages of the debate around international agreements on tropical products. It shows that: Product agreement plans must be interpreted in light of two essential, historically dated facts: (a) the existence in producer countries of state offices able to administer the volumes exported and control stocks; and (b) the convergence of strategies to enter international trade by so-called "developing" countries with a shared goal of maximizing currency revenues to finance industrialization. The erosion of theses two "pillars" starting in the 1970s was what caused these agreements to fail. The conclusion attempts to draw lessons for current market regulation projects.