Agriculture versus fish – Norway in WTO

The Norwegian agriculture is highly protected and subsidised. The opposite is the case for fisheries and fish farming which suffer from foreign market restrictions. Using a computational general equilibrium model, the gain for Norway of a complete elimination of food subsidies and tariffs is estimated to be in the range of 1.2–2.7 per cent of GDP. Most of this gain stems from domestic farm sector liberalisation. The gain from free market access for seafood is estimated to 4.4 per cent of the seafood export value. Consequently, Norway has much to gain from offering other countries market access for agricultural products. By pursuing such a policy, Norway may also strengthen the case for fisheries and fish farming in trade talks.     

Agriculture reform and food crisis in Syria: Impacts on poverty and inequality

The paper pursues a twofold objective. From a methodological viewpoint it shows how to carry out an impacts evaluation of exogenous shocks on poverty and inequality in a context characterised by out-of-equilibrium, poorly-adjusting markets, as it is the case in many developing countries, using a social accounting matrix framework. From an empirical viewpoint it provides an assessment of how the cereal price spikes of 2007–2008 and the global recession of 2008–2009 have impacted the welfare of Syrian households and how did they compound with the on-going agricultural sector liberalisation implemented by the Government of Syria since mid 1990s. This will contribute to shed some lights on the economic background behind the spreading of unrest across the country over the last couple of years or so.The results show that liberalisation impacts are very different and largely affected by the adopted budget closure rules. While reforms aiming at reducing agricultural market distortions (such as production subsidies and price support for strategic crops) could generally have a positive effect on growth, poverty and inequality, the elimination of food security interventions (such as food stamp schemes) determines an adverse distributional impact against rural household and an increase of poverty. The recent macroeconomic shocks (food price crisis and the global recession) determined a generalised poverty increase and showed an income distribution bias against rural households.Three fundamental policy implications can be drawn by this study. First, the liberalisation of agricultural sector shows a significant growth potential and is likely to determine positive effects on poverty through a generalised increase of incomes as well as public budget savings that could be used for pursuing other policy goals. Second, in the short-run there is a structural trade-off between equity improvements and poverty alleviation: the policy options that will more likely reduce absolute poverty show undesirable distributive biases (both on overall inequality and on rural households vis-à-vis urban households). Third, the reform should include a careful design of the use of budget savings, mainly to address equity goals that are likely to be generated, in the short-run, by liberalisation.     

Organising agriculture in the year 2000

How much of the world's potential food production is realised depends on how effectively agriculture is organised. The authors evaluate the effects of alternative agricultural systems on food production, consumption and trade growth rates in the food-deficit, developing countries. The effects of these alternative agricultural systems on production and trade in the rest of the world are also discussed. They conclude with a review of the specific characteristics of the alternative systems and examine the role each is likely to play in organising agriculture in the year 2000.     

The importance of EU-15 borders for CEECs agri-food exports: The role of tariffs and non-tariff measures in the pre-accession period

This paper assesses the evolution of the EU-15 market access for the agri-food products, originating from CEECs. A gravity model technique has been used to assess the overall trade resistance (border effect), and to weight its various components such as tariff and non-tariff measures (sanitary and phytosanitary standards, other quality measures) in the pre-accession period (1999–2004). The findings reveal, despite the undertaken integration and trade liberalisation processes, a persisting and significant trade resistance for the CEECs’ agri-food exports to the EU market, even just prior their accession in 2004. Still present difficulties in market access at the time are partially explained by tariff and non-tariff measures, while a large part of border effect remains in the domain of other, presumably non-trade policy related factors (home bias, consumer preferences, etc.). These results indicate that despite the accession process (customs union and adoption of the EU standards), the trade integration of the enlarged EU market was not yet completed in 2004.     

Analysing agricultural policy reforms under transition in Bulgaria

The elaboration of an appropriate incentive system, including measures of agricultural price and trade policy has important consequences for Bulgarian agriculture. This paper offers a brief picture of the process of reform towards the establishment of a market economy in Bulgaria, as well as of the main developments in its agricultural sector. An analysis is then presented of the impact of alternative agricultural price and trade policy scenarios for the period up to 2002. The results show that the impact of price and trade policies is modest when compared to that of technological change and the increase in incomes. Adoption of the CAP will stimulate production, decrease demand and have strong adverse effects on consumers and taxpayers and wider negative effects on the competitiveness of the food industry. Thus the issue of extending financial support for structural policies rather than granting direct aid requires further investigation.     

Oligopoly, open shop unions and trade liberalisation

In an international duopoly model, we investigate how trade liberalisation impacts on collective bargaining outcomes when workers are represented by open shop unions. We find that, with intermediate levels of union density, trade liberalisation may lead to higher negotiated wages even if no trade occurs in equilibrium. In addition, we show that union wages may be higher with free trade than in autarky.     

Food policy research for improving the reform of agricultural input and output markets in Central Asia

Agriculture is a significant component of the Central Asian economies. Since independence, the republics have implemented agricultural reforms in varying measure, yet production has fallen sharply across the region. The more ambitious agricultural reform programs have included measures aimed at liberalizing agricultural marketing, trade and prices. However, so far the expected supply response has yet to emerge. The objective of this paper is to highlight key policy and research issues surrounding reform of agricultural markets. It summarizes the main features of agricultural performance since the reforms, highlighting trends in grain and cotton, livestock, input use, and trade and analyzes key constraints to improvement of the sector, emphasizing price policy, sequencing problems, and institutional weakness. It presents a research agenda by identifying the main research needs for better agricultural policy design. It calls for more research on input and output market efficiency, private sector development, the effects of reform on farmers, sequencing issues, comparative advantage, water management, land tenure and farm size.     

Energiemarkt unter Hochspannung

The liberalisation of the German electricity market began ten years ago, yet many things have still not happened. About a hundred new companies have tried to bring movement into the industry, but very few have been successful. Now competition has arrived in the market and companies are facing a veritable revolution, aggravated especially by a raft of state regulatory measures. Over the next few years, departments of public works and local municipal power supply companies may disappear from the market altogether, or change their business models radically. Customers cannot look forward to price cuts, but they may nevertheless be able to save on electricity costs. That is because black-box electricity meters will be replaced by intelligent reading devices and skilled advice about reducing consumption. For many power suppliers this represents a new market to be tapped into. These are the results of a survey conducted by Steria Mummert Consulting and the F.A.Z. Institute amongst the top 100 energy suppliers in Germany.     

The impact of biofuel growth on agriculture: Why is the range of estimates so wide?

The rapid expansion of biofuel production has generated considerable interest within the body of empirical economic literature that has sought to understand the impact of biofuel growth on the global food economy. While the consensus within the literature is that biofuel emergence is likely to have some effect on future world agricultural market, there is a considerable range in the estimated size of the impact. Despite the importance of this topic to policy makers, there has been no study that has tried to reconcile the differences among various outlook studies. This paper undertakes an in-depth review of some key outlook studies which quantify the impacts of biofuels on agricultural commodities, and which are based on either general-equilibrium (GE) or partial-equilibrium (PE) modeling approaches. We attempt to reconcile the systematic differences in the estimated impacts of biofuel production growth on the prospective prices and production of three major feedstock commodities, maize, sugar cane, and oilseeds across these studies. Despite the fact that all models predict positive impacts on prices and production, there are large differences among the studies. Our findings point to a number of key assumptions and structural differences that seem to jointly drive the variations we observe, across these studies. The differences among the PE models are mainly due to differences in the design of scenarios, the presence or absence of biofuel trade, and the structural way in which agricultural and energy market linkages are modeled. The differences among the GE models are likely to be driven by model assumptions on agricultural land supply, the inclusion of the byproducts, and assumptions on crude oil prices and the elasticity of substitution between petroleum and biofuels.     

全球丙烯供需状况及其发展趋势分析

介绍了全球丙烯的供需状况、消费构成及贸易状况；分析了全球丙烯资源的来源渠道及地区分布状况；在此基础上总结出有关全球丙烯生产及消费的发展趋势，并对我国丙烯生产提出了一些看法。     

Linking agricultural policies with obesity and noncommunicable diseases: A new perspective for a globalising world

In light of the shift in policy paradigm in agriculture from state intervention to market liberalisation and globalisation, this paper develops a series of hypotheses on the relationship between agricultural policies and consumer diets. The first hypothesis is that the paradigm shift has led to greater specialisation of production, so changing the ability and incentive for producers to supply certain foods relative to others. Second, the shift has affected farmgate prices (both up and down), so creating opportunities for the industries which purchase farm commodities (the food consuming industries – FCIs) to substitute lower priced ingredients, thereby influencing the nutritional quality and content of foods available in the marketplace. Third, it has increased the ability of the FCIs to “add value” through product innovation and marketing, creating a market characterised by highly differentiated products targeted to individualised preferences, thus increasing the acceptability of a wider variety and quantity of food products.     

论中国外贸增长方式的转变

中国现行的主要依靠低生产要素成本和引进国外先进技术以形成国际竞争力,以数量扩张、劳动密集和低价格取胜,低效益、难持续的外贸增长方式,现在面临外贸条件恶化、外贸顺差过大、外贸依存度太高、人民币升值压力较大、生产要素价格上涨、高新技术引进困难、资源消耗过多、环境压力加剧的难题,必须采取多种有效措施,转变成为一种进出口商品结构优化、市场多元化、主要依靠自主创新和自主品牌、科技兴贸、以质取胜、产业结构合理、加工度高、附加值大、高效益、可持续的新的方式。     

Responding to Japan's deregulation of beef imports: A multifaceted challenge for Canadian export managers

While governments may expect benefits to arise from trade liberalisation, those benefits may not be forthcoming if there are considerable increases in the costs faced by exporting firms in the period following liberalisation. The challenge for export managers is to identify the important transaction costs and to find the vertical coordination mechanism which minimises transaction costs given the new importing regime. As of April 1 1991 Japan's beef importing system completed a major phase of liberalisation. A mutually beneficial increase in Canada-Japanese trade will, however, require a complex and multifaceted response from the Canadian beef industry.The Scottish Agricultural College receives financial support from the Scottish Office, Agriculture and Fisheries Department.     

Effects of trade and agricultural policies on the structure of the U.S. tomato industry

Over the last few decades, accelerated growth of Mexican tomato imports to the United States has caused several trade disputes with U.S. growers. A data-driven approach was used to analyze trade flows in the tomato industry from 1970 to 2015 and all structural changes to policy interventions implemented during the same period were linked. Tests for endogenous breakpoints reveal that NAFTA and trade pricing policies are two of the main factors that caused structural changes in the tomato industry in 1992 and 1999. While U.S. agricultural policies sought to protect domestic tomato producers, they did not stop Mexican tomatoes from taking an important share of the U.S. market. Mexican imports to the United States, especially post-NAFTA, have a high explanatory power for U.S. domestic production.     

Korean telecom policy in global competition: implications for developing countries

United States efforts to open the Korean telecommunications market have been incessant and tenacious, to the extent that Korea is the only country to be twice designated by the US as a priority foreign country (PFC). Through major restructuring driven by the Korean government, the telecommunications infrastructure of Korea has been strengthened and expanded, and in the process has posed a threat to the US telecommunications industry. Thus, since the late 1980s, the Korean telecommunications industry has been monitored and threatened with trade sanctions by the United States Trade Representative, and all internal restructuring has been closely related to bilateral negotiations with the US, and multilateral negotiations in the Uruguay Round. Based on interviews with key Korean telecommunications personnel and analyses of public documents, this research examines the Korean telecommunications market, telecommunications policies relative to the US and WTO, and the recent economic crisis that has affected the stability of the industry. The paper also offers five major recommendations to government and industry policymakers, including a more active and positive stance toward liberalisation, the relinquishing by bureaucrats of their monopolistic power over policymaking, the securing of an open and transparent policymaking process, and, in relations with the US, and the mobilisation of regional and multilateral organisations to ensure fair competition in telecommunications.     

The endless need for regulation in telecommunication: An explanation

Telecommunication services have existed as a legal monopoly nearly throughout its entire history. In 1998, telecom market liberalisation was achieved across the European Union (EU) through the introduction of competition among telephone services. Asymmetrical obligations were deemed necessary in order to compensate the market power of the former monopolist.As the evolution of asymmetrical regulation in Spain illustrates, obligations and the telecommunications operators subject to them increased with the regulatory framework established in 2002 in the EU. This new regulatory framework may continue to expand through the inclusion of functional separation as another possible asymmetrical obligation. In short, it seems that the regulatory pressure on the telecommunications industry is increasing, despite the lapse in time since the liberalisation of the industry.In this paper, a methodology developed by the Austrian School of Economics is applied in order to explain why the telecommunication market is subject to increasing regulation in Europe, rather than deregulation, after more than 10 years of liberalisation. In particular, Mises's theory of price control is used to explain the evolution of the regulation of local loop unbundling.     

Land consolidation,specialization and household diets: Evidence from Rwanda

Despite rapid population growth, increasing land pressure and urbanization, farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa have not intensified their production in a sustainable manner and farming systems remain predominantly subsistence-oriented. In response, developing country governments increasingly implement programs that promote crop intensification and more commercially-oriented agricultural systems. Rwanda’s Crop Intensification Program (CIP), launched in 2007, is one such example. However, despite its apparent success in raising production of several priority crops, there are legitimate concerns about the food and nutrition security implications for households that are encouraged to consolidate their land, specialize in their production, and increasingly rely on markets for their food needs. Using recent household survey data and a propensity score matching difference-in-differences method, we find that participation in land consolidation activities had ambiguous consumption effects: it positively impacted on consumption of roots and tubers, but had a negative effect on meat, fish and fruits consumption and the potential availability of vitamin B12 in participants’ diets. This calls for a review of CIP implementation practices to enhance the program’s food and nutrition security outcomes, with improvements in market functioning and market access being potential starting points.     

Economic planning of Eastern Europe and the USSR — the role of agriculture

Because of the large recent fluctuations in Soviet agricultural output, and rising consumer expectations and demand for food in East European nations, the latest five-year plans of these countries are showing an increase in the importance attached to agriculture and the food industry. The article examines the state of agriculture in the CMEA (Council for Mutual Economic Aid) countries and the probable effects of the plans on production and consumption. It appears that East European imports of grain are signs of prosperity rather than of gross inefficiency. The article indicates that grain production, and with it the trade balances, will improve significantly.     

Heterogeneous incentives for innovation adoption: The price effect on segmented markets

It is now commonly accepted that poverty alleviation and the development of agricultural value chains in low income countries require farmers to innovate. However numerous constraints to innovation adoption have been identified. In the literature, the market structures on which producers sell their output have received remarkably little attention. In this article, I argue that these can impact a producer’s choices with respect to the level of effort invested in changing agricultural practices. More specifically, due to transaction costs, contract farming and other market imperfections, output prices and production levels in rural areas are often jointly determined, leading to market segmentation. I develop a simple model to discuss how market segmentation induces non-trivial effects on incentives to innovate. Next, I rely on farm-level panel data from an extension project in the Peruvian highlands to test the empirical implications of the model. Producers that were not included in the formal market but close to it, performed better in improving agricultural practices. The indirect consequence of this investment is a higher price increase than the rest of the population, creating heterogeneous impacts of the programme, opportunities for economic mobility and a reduction in inequality. The evidence indicates how considering the effects of market structures leads to a more nuanced understanding of the process of agricultural innovation adoption in low and middle income countries.     

乙二醇生产消费现状及发展前景

20世纪90年代以来，由于世界聚酯产品市场消费的急剧增长，世界乙二醇的生产发展迅速。亚洲是世界乙二醇的主要消费地区和贸易区，其消费量占世界乙二醇总消费量的50％以上，但该地区的产量却不能满足实际生产的需要。文章分析了国内外乙二醇供需状况，对需求结构和改扩建形势作了详细介绍，预测了我国乙二醇工业发展前景，并提出了一些发展建议，为我国乙二醇工业今后的发展方向提供了参考。