美国棉花保险政策演变及对中国的启示

美国棉花在世界棉花市场上占据重要的地位,这与其个性化、多样化、覆盖范围广、保障程度高的棉花保险政策密不可分。本文以棉花保险政策演变的重要时间为节点进行梳理,从经营主体、保险支持力度、保障程度等方面分析其中的演变动因,借鉴美国棉花保险政策的发展经验,提出完善中国棉花保险政策的启示。     

美国棉花补贴政策及近10年的实际补贴额

美国政府历来认为经济事务是企业部门的事,政府不干涉经济事务,但对农业是个例外。美国政府认为,美国农业的根本问题是生产过剩和居民购买力不足,因此生产控制和价格支持就成了最重要的美国农业政策手段。美国国会于1933年通过了《1933年农业调整法》后的60多年中,几乎所有的农业立法都对这一政策进行了修改和补充。其基本作法是,政府根据“主要农产品”其基本作法是,政府根据“主要农产品（包括小麦、玉米、水稻、棉花、烟草等）当年的产量,消费和期末库存,以及对市场需求预测测定出下一年度的“农产品”计划,来执行其农产品价格及收入支持政策的。其基本内容包括。     

美国的棉花补贴政策

美国是最大的棉花出口国,也是对棉花补贴最多的国家。2005年11月18日,4个非洲国家向美国及有关发达国家提出,要求在2005年底前废除棉花出口补贴;在2006年底前削减80%的生产性补贴。事实上,除了美国对棉花实行补贴政策外,其他一些国家也有类似的补贴政策。为了帮助广大读者了解棉花补贴政策及其对棉花市场的影响,现将美国、欧盟、哥伦比亚、墨西哥等国家的棉花补贴政策介绍如下,以飨读者。     

美国2008新农业法案中的棉花补贴政策及其启示

本文分析了美国2002农业法案框架下棉花补贴政策的实施情况,考察了美国2008新农业法案中棉花补贴政策的改革内容。研究表明,美国的巨额棉花补贴显著地提高了棉花农场的收益,促进了棉花生产,但同时也有负面影响。美国2008新农业法案增添了新的补贴政策,其实质在于维护和提高美国棉花的国际竞争力。     

关于美国棉花协会的考察报告

应美国棉花协会(NCC)邀请，中国棉花协会派员于2004年10至11月赴美国进行了为期一个月的交流活动。一个月时问里，与美国棉花协会领导层及部门负责人进行了沟通，重点学习了美国棉花协会成立70多年来的成功经验，并在其安排下，拜访了有关政府部门，部分棉花农场主、合作社、研究机构、行业组织，并参观了美国棉花协会在圣地亚哥举办的“美国棉花采购峰会”。     

美国斯坦博棉花合作社简介

斯坦博棉花合作社成立于1921年，它是美国历史最悠久的棉花合作社，目前就销售数量来说，也是最多的。斯坦博棉花合作社是一个销售和仓储合作社，它拥有一个自己的附属公司，斯坦博贴现公司。这三部分相互独立。三方必须为自己的市场份额竞争。     

印度、墨西哥和埃及的棉花政策及对我国的启示

本文在对印度、墨西哥和埃及的棉花产业政策进行详细分析的基础上,得出如下几点政策启示:我国仍须重视棉花的生产发展;保护棉花生产者的利益,调动棉农的生产积极性;采取政府一般性的公益服务和支持,支持棉花生产发展;加强良种的选育与管理,完善棉花质量检验体系;利用期货交易的平台,有效规避价格风险,增加棉农收入。     

美国棉花供销合作社发展概况

前不久,美国棉花供销合作社代表伍兹·依斯克兰特在中国棉花贸易论坛会上介绍了美国棉花销合作社的发展概况,现摘要刊登如下,以飨读者。     

中美棉花生产成本结构差异的经营杠杆效应

本文通过数据测算，比较分析中美棉花生产成本结构上的差异。结果表明，美国棉花不仅在生产成本总量上具有优势，而且在国际竞争中，其成本结构通过政策补贴的强化所形成的经营杠杆效应具有压缩中国棉花利润空间、增强持久竞争力的效应。中国应该建立棉花支持政策的长效机制，增加科技投入，促进棉花种植机械的研发和使用。     

The Cotton Influence Index: An Examination of U.S. Cotton Subsidies

Given the lack of a bill or amendment specific to cotton, we introduce a Cotton Influence Index to capture legislators' influence in championing the cause of the cotton growers during the hearings of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002. Regression analyses reveal a relationship between Cotton Influence Index and campaign contributions, cotton farmland, party affiliation, and ideology. Tobit analysis indicates a significant relationship between different "actions and participations" by representatives to advance the interest of cotton—that is, components of this index and their future cotton political action committees' (PACs) contributions to them.     

Price Variability and Industrial Concentration in U.S. Food Industries

This paper focuses on the sources of intra‐industry price variability in US food industries during a period of increasing concentration, while accounting for the impact of variations in prices of primary agricultural products. Results suggest that intra‐industry price variability in food industries increases with their respective mean rate of inflation and product heterogeneity. However, industrial concentration lowers the sensitivity of relative prices to changes in the mean rate of inflation. Hence, static welfare losses to consumers from increasing concentration in food industries, a subject of recent and intensive investigation, can partly be offset by gains such as reduced price variability.     

The U.S. Sugar Policy Reforms and World Sugar Trade

This article incorporates the U.S. sugar policy instruments in a spatial Nash equilibrium model of world sugar trade and simulates the consequences of the U.S. sugar policy reforms on sugar trade among major producing and consuming regions of the world. The results show that policy reforms which eliminate import barriers by the U.S. can lead to major changes in the directions and volumes of sugar trade. Specifically, U.S. sugar imports would increase but domestic production and consumer prices would decline. Several regions in the developing world would increase their shares of the world sugar export trade.     

Trade Liberalization,Policy Reform and the U.S. Sugar Industry

This study examines the prospects for and potential impacts of liberalized international trade in sugar. It utilizes a state specific, cost of production based estimate of U.S. sugar supply to examine producer surplus under the current sugar policy regime and under a free trade scenario. It also evaluates the long-term viability of sugar production in individual states at free market prices.     

U.S. Dairy Policy and the Agreement on Agriculture in the WTO

The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors alone and in no way represent those of the institutions they represent. This paper calibrates a stylized national policy model of the U.S. dairy industry to analyze the effects of liberalizing the tariff quota policy. It is important to distinguish in-quota, over-quota, out-of-quota and nonquota imports. A framework to model quota underfill with out-of-quota imports is highlighted. To endogenize quota underfill and still account for out-of-quota imports, one needs to depict the marginal private benefits of imports under the quota and the corresponding marginal cost curve. The total transaction costs of the import quota scheme can be calculated. This framework is well suited for handling shocks because a change in in-quota or out-of-quota tariffs or a shift in the excess supply/demand curves affects marginal benefits, while a change in the quota affects the marginal cost of imports. We show regime switches affect trade liberalization and that a decrease in tariffs or an increase in quotas may have little effect without liberalizing both instruments. A component approach to model the sector has endogenous government-controlled class prices. An increase in imports of one product can result in an increase in the prices of other nontraded dairy products. This is because component prices change and so impact government-controlled class prices. Nous étalonnons un modèle de programme national stylisé du secteur laitier étatsunien pour analyser les effets d'une libéralisation de lapolitique des contingents tarifaires. Il est important de faire la distinction entre importation à l'intérieur du contingent, excédentaire au contingent, hors-contingent et non visée par un contingent. Nous mettons en évidence un cadre pour modéliser la portion non utilisée d'un contingent en présence d'importations hors-contingent. Pour endogénéiser la portion non utilisée d'un contingent tout en gardant en compte les importations hors-contingent, il faut décrire les avantages privés marginaux des importations prévues dans le contingent et la courbe des coûts marginaux correspondants. Les coûts transactionnels totaux des régimes de contingents tarifaires 4aG l'importation peuvent être calculés. Ce cadre convient bien pour absorber les chocs, du fait qu‘un changement des tarifs douaniers imposés aux importations intra-contingent ou aux importations hors-contingent, ou encore un déplacement de la courbe d'offres/demandes excédentaires, se répercute sur les bénéfices marginaux des exportations, alors qu‘un changement du régime de contingentement le fait sur les coûts marginaux. Nous démontrons que des changements de régime influent sur la libéralisation du commerce extérieur et qu'une réduction des tarifs douaniers ou une augmentation des contingents peuvent n'avoir que peu d'effets sans une libéralisation réelle des deux instruments. Une solution utilisant les composants laitiers pour modéliser le secteur comporte un contrôle endogène de l'État sur les prix par catégoric de produits. Un accroissement des importations visant un produit donné peut se propager aux prix d'autres produits laitiers non visés par les échanges commerciaux. Une telle réaction vient du fait que les prix des composants changent et qu'ils peuvent se réverbérer sur les prix par catégorie réglementés par l'État.     

U.S. Farm Policy and the Volatility of Commodity Prices and Farm Revenues

A dynamic three-commodity rational-expectations storage model is used to compare the impact of the Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform (FAIR) Act of 1996 with a free-market policy, and with pre-FAIR policies. Results suggest that FAIR did not lead to significant increases in long-run price volatility or revenue volatility. The main impact of pre-FAIR, relative to the free-market regime, was to substitute government storage for private storage in a way that did little to support prices or to stabilize farm incomes. Results also indicate that U.S. grain market volatility in 1995–2000 was due to fundamental market forces and not to FAIR.     

A New U.S. Farm Household Typology: Implications for Agricultural Policy

Changes in U.S. agriculture have yielded a diversity of farm types. These changes have extended beyond the farm business and into the farm household. The objective of this research is to motivate, develop, and discuss the policy implications of a new typology of U.S. farm households, which is based on household economic theory. Using the 2003 Agricultural Resource Management Survey and statistical analysis, the U.S. Farm Household Typology identifies six mutually exclusive groups of U.S. farm households. This typology is then compared to the current Economic Research Service Farm Typology and used to investigate the distribution of government payments.