Asia-Pacific food markets and trade in 2005: a global, economy-wide perspective

Rapid industrialization in East Asia, particularly China, is raising questions about who will feed the region in the next century and how Asia will be able to pay for its food imports. The paper ®rst reviews existing food sector projections and then takes an economy-wide perspective using projections to 2005, based on the global CGE model known as GTAP. After showing the impact of implementing the Uruguay Round, the paper explores several alternative scenarios. A slowdown in farm productivity growth is shown to be costly to the world economy, as is slower economic growth in China. Failure to honour Uruguay Round obligations to open textile and clothing markets in OECD countries would reduce East Asia's industrialization and thereby slow its net imports of food. On the other hand, the trade reform that is likely to accompany China's (and hence Taiwan's) member- ship of the World Trade Organization (WTO) adds 30 per cent to estimated global gains from the Uruguay Round. Their WTO accession is projected to boost exports of manufactures and strengthen food import demand by not only China but also its densely populated neighbours with whom it trades intensively.International Relations/Trade,

Ethanol trade policy and global biofuel mandates

Non-PRIFPRI5MTI

Ethanol Trade Policy and Global Biofuel Mandates

The impacts of the biofuel mandates in the EU and the US on agricultural markets and on the environment are assessed under three trade scenario assumptions using a global general equilibrium model. The study finds that while the biofuel mandates will result in important adjustments in global agricultural markets sector, it will generally be beneficial for the agricultural sector and farm producers, as well as on the environment in terms of reduced CO2 emissions. These benefits are further enhanced if the mandate policies are accompanied by liberalization in ethanol trade

GTAP 5: A Large-Scale Data Base Construction Project

A publicly available, fully-documented, global data base is the centerpiece of GTAP. Since GTAP’s inception in 1993, the data base has evolved in response to and with the support of its users. As the regional and sectoral classification expands and new features are added, the size and complexity of the construction task also increases. New methods and standards have been adapted to facilitate complete automation, ease in replicating previous builds, and flexibility in adding new inputs or regions. These innovations include the use of a modular structure, build management, version control, regional flexibility, and use of a common tool set

OECD DOMESTIC SUPPORT AND THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

This paper aims to shed light on the potential interests of developing countries in reforms to domestic support for agriculture in the OECD economies. In order to accomplish this goal, we begin by reviewing the literature on the impacts of domestic support on key variables, including farm income, in the OECD economies themselves. We then proceed to revise the standard GTAP model of global trade, based on recent work at the OECD, in order to permit it to better capture these impacts. A series of stylized simulations are subsequently offered to illustrate the differential impacts of alternative types of domestic support. These suggest the possibility of policy re-instrumentation, whereby farm income is stabilized in the face of cuts to overall support levels by shifting the mix of subsidies away from the more trade-distorting instruments which also tend to be ineffective tools for boosting farm incomes. We then explore in considerable detail the mechanisms by which OECD agricultural reforms affect developing country welfare. The primary channel for such effects works through the terms of trade which in turn depend in part on whether a country is a net exporter or a net importer of the affected OECD products. Long term support for agricultural program commodities in OECD countries, coupled with relative taxation in many developing countries, has left the latter increasingly dependent on imports of these subsidized products. This has, in turn, made them more vulnerable to agricultural reforms that raise these prices. As a result, we find that an across-the-board, 50% cut in all domestic support for OECD agriculture leads to welfare losses for most of the developing regions, as well as for the combined total group of developing countries. The 50% cut in domestic support also results in large declines in farm incomes in Europe, and, to a lesser degree, North America. This makes such a reform package an unlikely political event. An alternative approach to reforming agricultural policies in the OECD would be to focus on broad-based reductions in market price support. This has already been occurring in the EU, in particular, where domestic support has increasingly replaced border measures. As demonstrated in this paper, the basic economic principles of agricultural support policies suggest that a shift from market price support to land-based payments could generate a "win-win" outcome whereby farm incomes are maintained and world price distortions are reduced. This is the direction charted by the OECD in its recent "Positive Reform Agenda" for agriculture. We formally examine such an agricultural reform scenario, implementing a 50% cut in market price support for OECD agriculture, with a compensating set of land payments designed to maintain farm income in each of the member economies. This comprehensive reform scenario results in increased welfare for most developing countries, with gains on other commodities offsetting the terms of trade losses from higher program crop prices. We conclude that developing countries will be well advised to focus their efforts on improved market access to the OECD economies, while permitting these wealthy economies to continue - indeed even increase- domestic support payments. Provided these increased domestic support payments are not linked to output or variable inputs, the trade-distorting effects are likely to be small, and they can be a rather effective way of offsetting the potential losses that would otherwise be sustained by OECD farmers. This type of policy re-instrumentation will increase the probability that such reforms will be deemed politically acceptable in the OECD member economies, while simultaneously increasing the likelihood that such reforms will also be beneficial to the developing economies