The Liberalisation of Tariff Rate Quotas under Oligopolistic Competition |
| |
| Authors: | Margherita Scoppola |
| |
| Institution: | Margherita Scoppola is Professor of Agricultural Economics, Dipartimento di studi sullo sviluppo economico, Università di Macerata, Macerata, Italy. E‐mail: for correspondence. The author thanks Giovanni Anania, Luca Salvatici, the editor and two anonymous referees for helpful comments on an earlier draft of the article. Financial support received by the ‘New Issues in Agricultural, Food and Bio‐energy Trade (AGFOODTRADE)’ (Small and Medium‐scale Focused Research Project, grant agreement no. 212036) research projects funded by the European Commission and by the ‘European Union policies, economic and trade integration processes and WTO negotiations’ research project funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (Scientific Research Programs of National Relevance 2007) is gratefully acknowledged. |
| |
| Abstract: | Several proposals for liberalising agricultural tariff rate quotas (TRQs) have been proposed within the WTO Doha Development Round. The literature suggests that the effectiveness of liberalisation depends upon which of the three elements of a TRQ constrains imports. Most contributions assume perfect competition. This article uses an oligopoly two‐stage capacity constrained model, in which the mode of competition is endogenous, to investigate the impact of different liberalisation options of TRQs, that is, the reduction in the in‐quota and out‐of‐quota tariffs and the expansion of the quota. This article shows that consideration of the nature of competition between traders may provide unconventional conclusions about the effectiveness of the various TRQ liberalisation options; furthermore, the article shows how an increase in the number of rivals, under certain circumstances, may be more effective in increasing trade than reducing tariffs. |
| |
| Keywords: | Oligopoly tariff rate quotas trade liberalisation Q18 F13 L13 |
|
|
