Freedom and management in primary commodity markets: US imports from developing countries

New US data are employed to ascertain the share which intra-firm transactions make up of US primary commodity imports. This share is frequently very high and, for many commodities, well above the average for total US imports. An attempt to explain divergences between intra-firm prices and average prices by differential tax rates and foreign exchange controls yielded only weak results in the cases of bananas, iron ore, rubber and tea but strong ones in that of coffee. Analysis of transfer pricing behaviour is clearly very important in many commodity markets but requires more data than could here be brought to bear.