Trade and Competitiveness of the Mediterranean Countries on the Olive Oil Market

In the context of the establishment of a Mediterranean Free Trade Area, the paper analyses the structure and competitiveness of the Mediterranean basin countries in the olive oil trade and gives a preliminary explanation of the likely impact of the next liberalization process and challenges for the EU Mediterranean countries. The paper starts showing the level of integration of the international olive oil market and underlining the main factors affecting the process. Than, after a brief explanation of the methodology adopted, it analyses the main results achieved. Conclusions try to understand the impact of the competitive scenario showed by the empirical analysis on the Euromediterranean olive oil market following the trade liberalization.International Relations/Trade,

Scambi commerciali agricoli e accordi di partenariato tra Unione Europea e Africa

The Cotonou Partnership Agreement, signed on 2000, marks the beginning of a new cooperation phase between ACP countries and the EU. The IV pillar of the Agreement, aimed at the creation of a free trade area, concerns the economic and trade cooperation and is targeted to make trade in line with the WTO rules and to allow the ACP countries a full participation to international trade understood as strategic condition for supporting growth and development. In this context, the trade relationships between the EU and Africa are of specific importance when referred to agricultural products. The liberalization process might have a significant impact for the EU as leading world exporter and importer of agricultural goods and the wider destination and origin market of the African food and agricultural products. On the African side, agricultural export are often the primary source of foreign exchange for food imports required for domestic food security. Furthermore, the new Partnership Agreement creates an additional market access only for the agricultural products that, however, might results strongly constrained by the limited supply potential and high EU SPS standards. Thus, the analysis of the costs and benefits connected to the liberalization process in both the EU and Africa is relevant for a better understanding of the forthcoming competitive scenario for the agricultural products. This is the topic of the paper that, with reference to the time period from 1995-2006, provides a preliminary analysis of the main features of the agricultural trade flows between the EU-25 and Africa; the competitive potential of the sector; the explanatory variables of the African export flows trends to the EU-25. Despite the EU is negotiating an Agreement with the African countries as a whole, the analysis also distinguishes among geographic areas in order to estimate the likely different impact of agricultural trade liberalization. To the same aim food and agricultural product are considered separately.Agricultural Trade, Trade and Development, Agricultural Competitiveness, Q17,

Productivity Growth and Convergence between Agriculture and Industry in EU Countries

This paper presents estimates of the total factor productivity for 15 European countries at the economy-wide level for the period 1990-2003. Although the TFP estimates are based on the “old” growth theory (omitting human capital given the unavailability of data at the sector level), they are, however, derived from panel analysis, which is more appropriate than the usual time series regressions. The aim of the work is to verify the presence of a convergence process between agriculture and industry within the various countries in terms of both the TFP gap and the labour productivity gap. The conclusion is that in the period examined a convergence process was under way – albeit very slow – in the case of both the TFP and the labour productivity gap. In effect, the different country dynamics work out at a substantial invariance over time for the UE 15 gaps as a whole.Labour Productivity; Convergence Process

Scambi commerciali agricoli e accordi di partenariato tra Unione Europea e Africa

The Cotonou Partnership Agreement, signed on 2000, marks the beginning of a new cooperation phase between ACP countries and the EU. The IV pillar of the Agreement, aimed at the creation of a free trade area, concerns the economic and trade cooperation and is targeted to make trade in line with the WTO rules and to allow the ACP countries a full participation to international trade understood as strategic condition for supporting growth and development. In this context, the trade relationships between the EU and Africa are of specific importance when referred to agricultural products. The liberalization process might have a significant impact for the EU as leading world exporter and importer of agricultural goods and the wider destination and origin market of the African food and agricultural products. On the African side, agricultural export are often the primary source of foreign exchange for food imports required for domestic food security. Furthermore, the new Partnership Agreement creates an additional market access only for the agricultural products that, however, might results strongly constrained by the limited supply potential and high EU SPS standards. Thus, the analysis of the costs and benefits connected to the liberalization process in both the EU and Africa is relevant for a better understanding of the forthcoming competitive scenario for the agricultural products. This is the topic of the paper that, with reference to the time period from 1995-2006, provides a preliminary analysis of the main features of the agricultural trade flows between the EU-25 and Africa; the competitive potential of the sector; the explanatory variables of the African export flows trends to the EU-25. Despite the EU is negotiating an Agreement with the African countries as a whole, the analysis also distinguishes among geographic areas in order to estimate the likely different impact of agricultural trade liberalization. To the same aim food and agricultural product are considered separately

Trade and Competitiveness of the Mediterranean Countries on the Olive Oil Market

In the context of the establishment of a Mediterranean Free Trade Area, the paper analyses the structure and competitiveness of the Mediterranean basin countries in the olive oil trade and gives a preliminary explanation of the likely impact of the next liberalization process and challenges for the EU Mediterranean countries. The paper starts showing the level of integration of the international olive oil market and underlining the main factors affecting the process. Than, after a brief explanation of the methodology adopted, it analyses the main results achieved. Conclusions try to understand the impact of the competitive scenario showed by the empirical analysis on the Euromediterranean olive oil market following the trade liberalization

Scambi commerciali agricoli e accordi di partenariato tra Unione Europea e Africa

Agricultural Trade and Partnership Agreements between the EU and Africa - The Cotonou Partnership Agreement, signed on 2000, marks the beginning of a new cooperation phase between acp countries and the eu. The iv pillar of the Agreement, aimed at the creation of a free trade area, concerns the economic and trade cooperation and is targeted to make trade in line with the wto rules and to allow the acp countries a full participation to international trade understood as strategic condition for supporting growth and development. In this context, the trade relationships between the eu and Africa are of specific importance when referred to agricultural products. The liberalization process might have a significant impact for the eu as leading world exporter and importer of agricultural goods and the wider destination and origin market of the African food and agricultural products. On the African side, agricultural export are often the primary source of foreign exchange for food imports required for domestic food security. Furthermore, the new Partnership Agreement creates an additional market access only for the agricultural products that, however, might results strongly constrained by the limited supply potential and high eu sps standards. Thus, the analysis of the costs and benefits connected to the liberalization process in both the eu and Africa is relevant for a better understanding of the forthcoming competitive scenario for the agricultural products. This is the topic of the paper that, with reference to the time period from 1995- 2006, provides a preliminary analysis of the main features of the agricultural trade flows between the eu-25 and Africa; the competitive potential of the sector; the explanatory variables of the African export flows trends to the eu-25. Despite the eu is negotiating an Agreement with the African countries as a whole, the analysis also distinguishes among geographic areas in order to estimate the likely different impact of agricultural trade liberalization. To the same aim food and agricultural product are considered separately. JEL Codes: Q17 - Agriculture in International Trade Key words: agricultural trade, trade and development, agricultural competitiveness