27 research outputs found
Dirty Tariffication Revisited: The EU and Sugar
No full textIt is widely believed that a number of countries, including the EU, engaged in dirty tariffication during the Uruguay Round of trade talks. This article examines the EUÂ’s record on sugar and finds little evidence to substantiate the claim. However, world prices increased between the base period (1986-88) and the date of implementation (1995), and so tariffication resulted in an increase in the tax that would have been charged on sugar imports into the EU. As well, the Special Safeguard provisions meant that a substantial additional levy could be charged.agriculture, EU, sugar, tariffication, trade, International Relations/Trade,
CHALLENGES IN QUANTITATIVE ECONOMIC ANALYSIS IN SUPPORT OF MULTILATERAL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS
No full textInternational Relations/Trade,
The Doha Talks and the Bargaining Surplus in Agriculture
No full textThe Doha Round has been slow to achieve a reduction in the level of agricultural protection. This remains the case notwithstanding the substantial economic benefits that would arise from a more liberal agricultural trading regime. We provide one explanation for this slowness using a simple bargaining model. We demonstrate that the bargaining countries received a substantial fiscal gain from reducing government expenditures in the run-up to the Uruguay Round. This fiscal pressure was sufficient to block rent seekers who wanted farm payments to continue. Since the Uruguay Round these fiscal constraints have been reduced and the same pressure to reach a bargain and control rent-seeking behaviour is not present in the Doha Round.Doha Round, rent seeking, bargaining, International Relations/Trade,
Current preferences of Southern Mediterranean Countries and their erosion after variations of the entry price system
No full textIt has been calculated the value of the preference margin granted to Euro-Mediterranean partners in the cases of reduced entry prices in force, and then it has been simulated the impact of EU trade liberalisation for F&V on such values after two different alternatives of EP system variations resulting from a WTO agreement. The results of current preferences indicate that in monetary terms there is only a significant relevance of the preferential EPs in the case of Moroccan tomatoes and, to a lesser extent, in Moroccan clementines. Very little is the relevance for Jordanian tomatoes and cucumbers and Moroccan courgettes, cucumbers and artichokes. In the cases of oranges from Egypt, Morocco, Israel and Jordan, preferential EP has not meant potential monetary transfers to these preference-receiver countries. Instead, the ad valorem tariff exoneration seems crucial in almost all the products. With regard to the erosion of preferences as a result of a WTO agreement, the magnitude of the erosion depends crucially on the variation/no-variation of the current trigger EPs, and the undermining of preferences is concentrated mostly on Moroccan tomatoes.Entry prices, erosion of trade preferences, Euro-Mediterranean trade, fruits and vegetables, International Relations/Trade,
How effective is the EU Entry Price System for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables?
No full textThe EU protects EU growers of 15 kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables against international competition not only by the means of ad valorem tariffs of up to 20%, but also by the EU entry-price system (EPS), which is designed to restrict imports below the product-specific, politically designated entry price level. This study investigates the influence of the EPS on import prices of fruits and vegetables per product and country of origin. We utilise a unique data set comprising about 60,000 observations of daily synthetic import prices. We develop two indicators for the effectiveness of the EPS, which serve as variables in a cluster analysis identifying four classes differing in the relevance of the EPS. Results suggest that the relevance of the EPS is heterogeneous among products as well as countries of origin for most fruits and vegetables. Thus, an adequate assessment of the importance of the EPS requires not only a product-specific but also a country-specific analysis. Overall, our results indicate that the effectiveness of the EPS is highest for the import of artichokes, courgettes, cucumbers, lemons, plums and tomatoes. The influence of the EPS on apples, clementines and pears is significantly lower, and of least relevance for EU imports of apricots, mandarins, oranges, peaches and nectarines and table grapes. The EPS has the greatest effect on countries which neighbour the EU, whereas it is of minor importance for exports from far-away countries with the exception of China and South Africa.threshold cointegration, spatial price transmission, vector error correction model, Agricultural and Food Policy, Demand and Price Analysis,
THE ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS OF CHEMICAL USE RESTRICTIONS IN AGRICULTURE
No full textAgricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries,
THE ECONOMICS OF GRAIN PRODUCER CARTELS
No full textThe objective of this study is to measure economic payoffs from a grain cartel. Two basic approaches to extract economic rents are considered: (i) Mandatory supply controls to restrict production and raise grain price, and (2) export price discrimination using export taxes or subsidies. The economic impacts of different producer cartel scenarios were estimated using a long-term, nine-region world trade simulation model incorporating the assumptions of neoclassical trade theory. The SWOPSIM program was used to write the model equations. Economic Research Service trade data for 1989 were used to initialize the model. Results reflect long-run changes from 1989conditions and are at 1989 general price levels. The model simultaneously estimated outcomes in markets for nine commodities: beef, pork, poultry meat, wheat, corn, coarse grains (other than corn), oilseeds (soybeans, rapeseed, and sunflower seed), oilmeal, and sugar. Cross-effects among commodities and input-output relationships between field crop and livestock production are accounted for by substitution and complementary coefficients in behavioral equations. Countries and groups of countries included in the model are Australia, Canada, the European Community (EC), European Free Trade Association (EFTA), the United States (US), Japan, and the rest of the world (ROW). The simulation results report the consequences of restricting only US grain production (wheat, corn, and other coarse grains) from 5 to 20% below the 1989 production level. Grain supply restrictions were presumed to be mandatory, hence taxpayers incurred no additional outlays over those in 1989 . World price increases were modest for wheat, but greater for corn and other coarse grains in part because of differences in market share among grains. US consumers of grain and grain products buy less at higher prices and are worse off, as is the country as a whole. Consumer surplus falls nearly 7 billion in rents they collect from current programs. It seems unlikely that a producer group would risk gains of this size for the prospect of cartel rents a sixth the size or less from international markets. Gains to US producers are less for a wheat cartel than for either the feed grain cartel or for the wheat-feed grain cartel included herein. The unfavorable outcomes originate from the export demand for US wheat made highly elastic by opportunities to substitute feed grain for wheat in production and consumption especially in the long run. That is, a high wheat price and controlled production of wheat encourages importers to produce wheat, cut back feed grain production, and import low-cost feed grains.Crop Production/Industries, International Relations/Trade,
U.S. IMPORTS OF CANADIAN WHEAT: ESTIMATING THE EFFECT OF THE U.S. EXPORT ENHANCEMENT PROGRAM
No full textIt is hypothesized that the U.S. Export Enhancement Program (EEP) has had a role in increased U.S. imports of Canadian wheat. Using a set of world wheat models that differentiate wheat according to class and source, several conclusions concerning the role of EEP are reached. Over the period 1986-1993, EEP has been accountable for 40 to 48 percent of the yearly growth in U.S. imports of Canadian wheat. EEP subsidies in 1991/92 to China and Brazil caused significant diversion of Canadian wheat that would have been destined for those markets instead to the U.S. market. Further, it is argued that a quota on imports is not likely to have price-enhancing effects for U.S. wheat.Canada, export enhancement program, wheat, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade,
The production and diffusion of policy knowledge
No full text"The published works of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) represent the most immediate and tangible measure of the new policy-related knowledge attributable to the institute, its staff, and research partners. This study provides a quantitative assessment of the number, nature, form, and use of IFPRI's published products since 1979 and compares and contrasts that with the publication performance of several similar agencies, including the economics and social sciences programs of the Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (CIMMYT) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) respectively, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE), the Bangladesh Institute for Development Studies (BIDS), and the now defunct Stanford University Food Research Institute (SFRI). Overall, IFPRI's circulated output is extensive, published not only in a broad portfolio of leading scholarly journals, but also in a wide range of books, technical reports, and extension documents. The amount of published output has tended to increase throughout IFPRI's history, and it continues to do so. Going beyond counting and classifying IFPRI's published record, we report the results of a bibliometric assessment of IFPRI and the comparison institutes for the period 1981–96 using the publication and citation performance details recorded in the Institute for Scientific Information's (ISI) Science Citation Index and Social Science Citation Index data bases. Citations to published literature are not indicative of an impact on policy or the economy generally but on further research and analysis. An analysis of coauthorship patterns provides an indication of impact too (more directly through the conduct of joint research), as well as indications of the way the research is carried out. Our analysis reveals the role IFPRI plays as a knowledge intermediary between the scholarly community and policy clienteles, but that a high proportion of its research collaborations leading to formal publications (and especially publications in the leading journals covered in ISI's data bases) involve researchers in advanced agencies. This partly reflects the limited capacity to perform food policy research in many developing countries — itself a reflection of local priorities for education and limited, long-term international support to increase scientific capacity in developing countries — and also underscores the role IFPRI could, and arguably should, play in redressing this state of affairs." Authors' AbstractInternational Food Policy Research Institute History ,Research institutes Evaluation ,Communication in learning and scholarship ,Bibliometrics ,Information science Statistical methods ,Knowledge management ,International Food Policy Research Institute Communications systems Evaluation ,Food policy Research ,
