Water scarcity and food trade in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries

This study investigates food trade patterns in relation to water resources availability in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries (SEMED). Examinations show that most of these countries have a high dependence on the import of water intensive crops – cereal, vegetable oil and sugar, in the domestic food supply. The region as a whole is marginally a net exporter of fruits and vegetables, while variations are substantial across countries. Multi-variable regression analyses show that intensification of water scarcity is an important factor in explaining the increase in food import in the SEMED countries during the past two decades. It also finds that while GDP per capita has a strong influence on the level of food import in a country, its impact on changes in the import during the same period is rather modest. No significant relationship is found between the trade of fruits and vegetables and water resources availability. The projection on food import with respect to the decline in per capita water resources availability results in an increase of 40%, 39% and 14%, respectively, for cereal, vegetable oil and sugar by 2020 in the region, holding other factors constant. The European Union (EU) is the major food trade partner of the SEMED countries, except for cereal. About 70% of the fruit export and 55% of the vegetable export of the region currently go to the EU market. Expanding the export of fruits and vegetables is conducive to improving the value of water use in the SEMED countries. However, the expansion is constrained partly by the barriers in the destination markets, notably the EU.     

Fertilizer market liberalization and private retail trade in Kenya

This paper examined the factors influencing the entry and sales decision of private traders in fertilizer retail trade in a liberalized market using survey data from Kenya. A two-stage econometric model is used to examine traders’ entry and sales decision. The results provide insights into factors that are associated with private retail traders’ entry and sales decisions in an era of liberalized fertilizer markets. It shows substantial entry into fertilizer retail trade following market liberalization. Relatively limited investments in trading assets and equipment are predicted to hold back firm expansion. Implications drawn from the study provide insights into likely research and policy interventions.     

南非柔版包装印刷市场

一、 Golden Era包装印刷集团 “柔版印刷过去只是一种工艺,而现在却已经成为了一种文化。 "——这是 Golden Era包装印刷集团所提出来的口号,该集团位于约翰内斯堡西北 250公里左右。 　　目前, Golden Era包装印刷集团下面建有许多分公司,产品主要包括：折叠纸盒、自粘标签（用七台 Gallus R160和 R 200半自动凸印机）、瓦楞纸箱生产企业、蜡涂布、聚丙烯袋子、名片纸、纸袋子和吹塑瓶等。其中,自粘标签的生产设备包括七台 Gallus R160和 R 200半自动凸印机;折叠纸盒的生产设备有单张胶印和卷筒柔印,所生产的折叠纸盒主要用…     

Integrating Africa by Competition and Market Policy

Review of Industrial Organization - Africa has the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The agreement will lower tariffs and facilitate internal market trade on the continent, and policy...     

Market structure and U.S. trade flows

Using samples of input-output table detailed industries, we test the impact of various elements of market structure on U.S. trade flows, at the industry level, holding factor proportions constant. Industry demand characteristics and the extent of scale economies have significant impacts on trade flows. Labor intensity at the industry level has the effects on trade flows which are predicted by the factor proportions theory. Capital intensity increases both import and export flows; this result, together with certain others, suggests the importance of trade among industrialized countries in producer goods.     

市场开放与工程造价管理改革

我国现行的工程造价管理模式已不能适应改革开放的新形势,主要表现在：不利于政府职能的转变,不利于企业间的充分竞争,以及成为滋生腐败的温床。文章构建了完全市场化的工程造价管理模式,呼吁尽快在全国推行并与国际接轨。该模式的主要特点：一是统一工程量计算规则,二是业主提供工程量清单,三是承包商主动填报单价,四是低价为优的评标标准。     

Domestic and international impacts of the rice trade policy reform in the Philippines

Faced with high domestic rice prices that have fueled inflation above the 2018 target and penalized poor consumers the most, the government of the Philippines has decided to abandon the quantitative restrictions on imports and replace them with tariffs. This paper uses a global rice model based on a partial equilibrium framework to assess the possible impacts of this reform on imports, production, consumption and prices. In contrast with past similar studies, we address three key concerns (i) the heterogeneity in farm price across 16 regions in response to the combined effect of the tarriffication and the average historical trend in productivity increase at 1.5% between 2001 and 2018, (ii) the differentiation of imports by origin partly due to the different tariffs applied to countries within and beyond the Association of South East Asian Nations, and (iii) the effect on domestic prices in third countries. The simulation results suggest that the reform would increase imports by 2.47 million tons (20.7%) in 2019. We also find a large decline in farm prices and retail prices respectively by PhP 6.1/kg (30.1%) and PhP 7.6/kg (17.4%) in 2019 that explains an increase in rice consumption. We estimate the fall in total inflation at 1.2% in 2019 but less over time. Further, the large fall in farm prices in 2019 is shared quite evenly among regions in the short term but returns to pre-reform levels in the near term. Using a higher price elasticity of supply for one region obtained from panel data surveys, we show a more pronounced decline in production than the national average. Such differentiated results confirm the relevance of using a regionally disaggregated model to design more targeted policies. We also show a slight increase in world prices, which led to small increases in the domestic prices of South and Southeast Asian rice markets. While this reform is largely pro-poor consumers, policy makers would need to use the additional tariff revenue to help rice growers either increase their competitiveness and modernize their rice production or shift to other crops.     

Good intentions,poor outcomes: Telecommunications reform in South Africa

As the first decade of democratic rule draws to a close in South Africa, this paper reviews the telecommunications reform process in terms of the performance of the sector against the twin national policy objectives of affordable access to communications services and accelerated development to meet the needs of a modern economy. It critiques the implementation of international reform models which have in practice tended to emphasise privatisation at the expense of other reform mechanisms—including competition and, in particular, regulatory measures. It argues that this has impacted negatively on affordable access and has inhibited market innovation.This paper identifies the root of the problem as the market structure. Designed around the vertically integrated incumbent operator, it induces inherently anti-competitive impertives that demands a resource-intensive regulatory response. The regulator has often not had the statutory powers, and seldom the capacity, to circumscribe the behaviour of the incumbent so that it does not impact negatively on new entrants. Without effective regulation, the assumed benefits of liberalisation—including more affordable access through improved management of the incumbent and more efficient allocation of resources in the market through competition—do not materialise.The paper argues that developing country telecommunications markets demand more from a regulator than simply meeting the threshold requirements of transparency and predictability via so-called international “best practice” models. Such a limited approach will not be sufficient to meet the challenges facing most developing countries. The highly imperfect nature of developing country markets, and the enormous income disparities and inequities that exist, require strategic regulation. This is necessary to enable innovative service provision, especially to under-serviced areas, and to facilitate fair competitive markets that promote the viability of the new entrants needed to build the information infrastructure—the infrastructure necessary for a country's participation in the global network economy.Simply removing all market-entry restrictions, however, is likely to place an even more onerous burden on already-struggling regulators and is unlikely to contribute to universal access and other developmental goals. A new policy approach involving the fundamental restructuring of the market is needed to remove the anti-competitive incentives that exist in the vertically integrated market structure that generally accompanies privatisation in developing countries. While a more horizontally structured market will not remove the incumbent advantage entirely, it is likely to reduce the need for constant adjustment of anti-competitive behaviour on the part of the incumbent, freeing up regulatory resources for more strategic regulation towards achieving national developmental objectives.     

Improved use of fisheries resources : Alleviating malnutrition in Southern Africa

The author reviews the potential for improved use of fisheries resources in nine southern African countries. These countries have serious problems of malnutrition and the author concludes that fisheries resources could make a substantially greater contribution to nutrition. Supply, processing and distribution of fisheries products are reviewed, and the benefits of improved kapenta and aquaculture production are discussed.     

Feeding the famine? American food aid and the GMO debate in Southern Africa

The inclusion of genetically modified maize in food aid shipments to Southern Africa during the 2002 food crisis rekindled debates over agricultural biotechnology. As the region edged ever closer to famine – putting the lives to some 14 million Africans at risk – corporate pundits, government officials and biotech’s critics debated the health and environmental dangers posed by the new technology.By situating the decision to send genetically modified maize to Southern Africa in the context of US–European debates over agricultural biotechnology, it becomes clear that the promotion of biotechnology has nothing to do with ending hunger in the region. Indeed, American food aid shipments to Southern Africa have little to do with the famine at all. Instead, I argue that US food aid policy following the 2002 crisis was intended to promote the adoption of biotech crops in Southern Africa, expanding the market access and control of transnational corporations and undermining local smallholder production thereby fostering greater food insecurity on the Continent.     

The multidimensional effect of financial development on trade in Africa: The role of the digital economy

The issue of how financial development affects international trade has gained much attention in the literature, both theoretical and empirical, without investigating the various transmission channels of financial development on international trade. Significantly, how the digital economy modulates the effects of financial development on trade remains unexplored. Our study addresses these research gaps using panel data from 47 African economies spanning 1990 to 2019. Our findings based on the dynamic system GMM approach show that the direct impacts of financial development and the digital economy have been crucial in driving international trade in Africa in the short and long runs. Second, in the short and long runs, the digital economy serves as a vital channel through which financial development has the most significant impact on trade in Africa. Third, the robustness checks by excluding countries endowed with natural resources in Africa provide robust evidence that digital technology and finance matter for trade. Further, the study discloses an important novelty in that the marginal effects on trade increase when financial development in Africa interacts with the digital economy. In light of these findings, we conclude that policy reforms should focus on policies that encourage the development of the digital economy and its use in the financial sector in Africa.     

改革过渡期南方电力市场定价机制与交易模式探讨

通过分析南方电网联网运行以来的电力交易情况,提出在电力体制改革过渡期,得到潜在联网效益最有效的办法是建立一个基于成本定价的电力市场。这种市场有四种交易模式,其中分级的区域电力市场模式投入最省,获得的效益较多。     

Market failures and the additionality effects of public support to private R&D: Theory and empirical implications

We extend the theoretical basis of the empirical literature on the effects of R&D subsidies by providing an estimable model of strategic interaction among subsidy applicants, and public and private sector R&D financiers. Our model incorporates fixed R&D cost and a cost of external finance. We derive the optimal support rule. At the intensive (extensive) margin the costs of external funding reduce (increase) the optimal subsidy rate. We also establish necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of additionality. It turns out that additionality at the intensive margin is less likely with higher spillovers. Our results suggest that the relationship between additionality and welfare may not be straightforward.     

Climate change and trade in agriculture

Agricultural productivity in both developing and developed countries will have to improve to achieve substantial increases in food production by 2050 while land and water resources become less abundant and the effects of climate change introduce much uncertainty. Already less resilient production areas will suffer the most, as temperatures will rise further in tropical and semi-tropical latitudes and water-scarce regions will face even drier conditions. International trade plays an important role in compensating, albeit partially, for regional changes in productivity that are induced by climate change. While a well-functioning international trade system can support the adaptation to climate change-related challenges, trade policies as such are imperfect instruments to induce less emissions globally. A well-functioning international trading system can support the adaptation to climate change-related challenges. Hence welfare gains from reforms to trade policies may be greater than normally measured if they also reduce GHG emissions globally.     

中信联盟粤东小商品采购中心 第三方贸易服务平台初见成效

2011年8月8日-11日,由中信联盟机构主办的首届粤东小商品采购会在广东省汕头市澄海展览中心顺利举行,中信联盟粤东小商品采购中心也由此正式运营,这标志着一个以＂产地厂价直销＂为优势的第三方贸易服务平台在粤东诞生并初见成效!     

Another instance where privatization trumped liberalization: The politics of telecommunications reform in South Africa—A ten-year retrospective

Soon after the first democratic election in 1994, South Africa passed legislation to revamp the telecommunications sector—to roll out telephone service to the previously disadvantaged and establish an independent regulator to oversee the reform. The Government sold a 30 percent stake in the state-owned incumbent network operator, Telkom, to expand telephone service to under-serviced areas and populations. Ten years on, the reform has largely failed. Telkom, granted a 5-year period of exclusivity to expand the network, has used its monopoly power to thwart competition. It has raised prices so high as to be damaging to the economy. The Regulator has been largely sabotaged by the Government, in part due to the consequences of the haste to privatize, in part because the ANC leadership has been loath to trust democratic structures outside of its immediate control. The situation has opened up opportunities for rent-seeking under the ideological aegis of Black Economic Empowerment. The paper examines the relative failure of reform in South Africa in the context of internal South African politics and against a backdrop of sectoral reform in similarly situated countries.     

有朋自远方来:欧美在华包装协会一览

美国包装机制造协会PMMI；英国／JUT与包装机械协会PPMA；德国机械与设备制造商联合会食品加工和包装机械分会；意大利自动化包装机械制造商协会UCIMA；[编者按]