Latin America's "New Open Regionalism" and WTO Negotiations: the case of agriculture

This article analyses past trade trends and agricultural protectionism in Latin American agriculture, by examining observed changes in Latin American agriculture and trade policies over the last 20 years that have led to what the authors call the "New Open Regionalism". It also discussed the conflicting interests and various trading positions taken up by Latin American countries in multilateral trade talks, as a result of the strong heterogeneity between net agricultural exporters and importers. The authors show that the repeated failure of the Doha round of trade talks opens the door for bilateral or sub-regional free trade agreements, concluding with the prediction that regional integration in Latin America will come about as a result of agreements between various sub-regional trade blocs. The weakness of internal demand makes the development of the region's agri-food sector highly dependent on exports, the growth of which is one of the main economic drivers in these countries, particularly net exporters. In addressing the issue of the distribution of profits from trade liberalization, the authors propose a variety of schemes that have already proved their effectiveness in countries such as Mexico, Turkey, Brazil, Colombia, Nicaragua and Honduras Nuevos acuerdos regionales de comercio en Latinoamérica y disposición a negociar: el caso de la agricultura Resumen Este artículo analiza las tendencias del comercio agrario y el proteccionismo de la agricultura en Latinoamérica, examinando los cambios observados en la agricultura y la política comercial en los últimos 20 años, denominados por los autores como "nuevos acuerdos regionales de comercio". También se discuten el conflicto de intereses y las variadas posiciones comerciales desarrolladas por los distintos países de América Latina, como resultado de una fuerte heterogeneidad entre los exportadores y los importadores agrarios netos. Los autores muestran que los reiterados fallos de las negociaciones comerciales de la ronda Doha abrieron las puertas para acuerdos comerciales libres bilaterales o sub-regionales, concluyendo con la predicción de que la integración regional traerá como resultado un acuerdo entre varios bloques de comercio sub-regionales. La debilidad de la demanda interna hace que el desarrollo del sector agroalimentario dependa fuertemente de las exportaciones, especialmente de los exportadores netos. En la dirección de los resultados de la distribución de beneficios de los acuerdos de liberalización, los autores proponen una variedad de esquemas que han tenido su efectividad en países como México, Turquía, Brasil, Colombia, Nicaragua y Honduras. Palabras clave: acuerdos libre de comercio, nuevos acuerdos regionales de comercio y agricultura.Free Trade Agreements, New Open Regionalism and Agriculture, International Relations/Trade, Q17,

COMMODITY POLICY, PRICE INCENTIVES, AND THE GROWTH IN PER-ACRE YIELDS

We estimate the influence of policy-induced price changes and of technology supply on North Carolina flue-cured tobacco yields. The decline in land rent and effective output price that accompanied a 1965 policy change from acreage allotments to poundage quotas caused a 12 percent decrease in yields. Farmer yields were more responsive to yield-increasing technologies under acreage allotments than under poundage quotas. Annual yield growth was 0.5 percent under poundage quotas and 4.32 percent under acreage allotments. The growth rate decline is attributable to changes in relative prices and to a slowdown in the supply of available technologies.Commodity policy, Endogenous yield growth, Flue-cured tobacco, Technical change, Agricultural and Food Policy, Demand and Price Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

COMMODITY PROGRAM SLIPPAGE RATES FOR CORN AND WHEAT

Slippage rates for corn and wheat are estimated using a simultaneous system explaining per-acre yields, input usage, technical change, and levels of participation in government programs. Soybeans are included due to cross-compliance requirements and because they substitute for corn in production. Slippage rates for wheat are in the range of 29-37% and for corn in the range of 48-58%. The results imply that efficient design of commodity programs must account for the slippage of aggregate yields due to changes in land quality and the use of constrained resources over fewer acres.Crop Production/Industries,

Comparing demand functions when different price manipulations are used: Does unit price help?

Six hens pecked a key (Experiment 1) or pushed a door (Experiment 2) to obtain food reinforcement. In both experiments and as an analogue of price changes, the response requirements were varied in two ways: by increasing the number of responses required and by increasing the required force of each response. The two price manipulations (response number and response force) had different effects on behavior and produced different-shaped demand functions when the rates of consumption were plotted logarithmically against the price analogues. Irrespective of response topography, when the number of required responses was varied, the data paths appeared linear, with slopes close to -1.0. When the required force of each keypeck and doorpush was varied, the data paths were clearly curved, with increasingly steep downward slopes as the force increased. Using the concept of unit price did not fully remove the different effects of the two price manipulations. Those differences are best attributed to the differing times needed in order to complete each response unit under those price manipulations

Enduring Design for Business Entities

The success or failure of an institution may hinge on some of the earliest decisions of its founders. In constitutional design literature, endurance is a widely accepted drafting objective. Indeed, constitutional endurance is positively associated with prosperous and stable societies. Like drafters of constitutions, business organizers have almost innumerable objectives for their enterprises, and attorneys drafting organizational documents must take into account these myriad goals. Oftentimes the drafting process fails to fully address some of the most important of these aims and results in suboptimal structures that lack predictability and reliability. This article looks specifically at small business organizations and argues that drafters can draw from the lessons of constitutional design to facilitate a more deliberate drafting process that would result in more predictable business institutions. Such a process would accommodate a more thorough bargaining process among organizational founders and enhance the effectiveness of its governing documents. Certain design elements are correlated to constitutional endurance, and those same elements can guide the drafting process for business associations. Specifically, long-lived constitutions incorporate flexible amendment procedures, involve a greater number of constituents in the drafting process and enforcement processes, and offer more detail and specificity in the governing provisions. Business entities can utilize some of these same features, and this article offers specific suggestions for incorporating the elements associated with endurance into business drafting. By crafting organizational structures with elements that parallel those of long-lived constitutions, business attorneys can facilitate a more thorough bargaining process and craft more usable, resilient documents that effectively address unique client objectives

Making Plaintiffs Whole: A Tax Problem of Interest

This article illustrates the dramatic tax impact of interest awards in otherwise non-taxable litigation recoveries and proposes two alternative legislative solutions for the over-taxing of plaintiffs in these cases. While plaintiffs who recover personal injury awards typically receive favorable tax treatment, those who receive interest on such awards are taxed on the interest and often are not able to utilize deductions for attorney’s fees and other costs paid to obtain the award. Further, the attorney’s portion of the recovery in a contingency fee arrangement will be included in the plaintiff’s gross income. The result is that the plaintiff recovers less of the interest than the Treasury or her attorney, preventing the plaintiff from truly being made whole. After reviewing the historical and theoretical framework that produces these results, I suggest previously proposed judicial solutions to the problem are impracticable and a legislative solution is necessary. I conclude with a proposal for two alternative legislative solutions: an expanded deduction and an exclusion to provide relief for plaintiffs recovering partially taxable awards and to achieve the policy of fully compensating injured plaintiffs

PHYTOSANITARY REGULATION AND AGRICULTURAL FLOWS: TOBACCO INPUTS AND CIGARETTES OUTPUTS

This paper examines the effects of the use of increasingly-popular phytosanitary regulations on production costs, and output and factor trade flows. The case addressed is that of the European regulation of maximum chemical residues in cigarettes manufactured with tobacco containing maleic hydrazide. The paper presents simulations of the effects of tightening the input/output market linkages and on the substitution away from the residue-contaminated U.S. input to residue-free non-U.S. inputs. This induced substitution results in higher costs, lower quantity supplied of the final product, and higher prices for U.S. cigarettes in Europe. Cross-price effects lead to higher quantities of EU cigarettes sold and a corresponding increase in the use of all inputs, including U.S. tobacco. When the U.S. tobacco price is allowed to fall, direct price effects stimulate the EU derived demand for U.S. tobacco. Although the regulation is protectionist in the output market, it leads to increased EU imports of the residue-contaminated input. When the price of U.S. tobacco adjusts, the regulation is actually antiprotective for EU growers. The regulation also indirectly influences production practices of U.S. tobacco growers and leads to lower levels of MH residues on U.S. leaf.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Customizing DSpace Manakin for Educational Video Collections to Enhance User Experience

4th International Conference on Open RepositoriesThis presentation was part of the session : Conference PostersThe poster reports our experience of using DSpace Manakin for Starlink Video Repository. The project is a cooperation between STARLINK (Richardson, TX) and TxCDK of University of North Texas, under the supervision of Dr. William Moen. The project uses DSpace v.1.5 Manakin to create a dynamic digital repository system to store, manage and present STARLINK's various video collections. STARLINK has recently successfully launched its Ideas Collection with the new depository with much improved user interface and seamless integration with STARLINK's existing web site. More collection will be added to the depository for more streamlined operation. The project showcases DSpace as a low-cost and flexible platform appropriate for educational institution like STARLINK to run a web-based depository system for better resource sharing and user interaction. The poster will also discuss the challenges the project faced in customizing DSpace to provide different types of access for subscription and non-subscription users, and DSpace Manakinâ s better interface design functionalities.STARLIN

The Effect of Genetic and Infrastructure Investments in Dairy and Beef Producers' Profit in Chile

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of infrastructure and genetic improvement investments, promoted by a government program (Programa de Modernizacion Ganadera), in milk and meat producers' profit in Region IX. Using a system of simultaneous equations, the effect of the investment on quality, in the price, in the yield and production cost of milk were estimated. In the case of milk, we reject the nonlinear hypothesis that the elasticities of investment in genetic improvement in gross income and variable costs are equal to zero. The estimation was done using information of 276 producers of the IX Region that participated in the program during the period 1998-99 (17,3 % of the regional population), with information for the years 1998 (baseline), 2001 and 2003. The results indicate that the investment in infrastructure had a positive and statistically significant impact in the quality of milk, which translates into a higher price received by producers. Meanwhile the investment in genetic improvement had a positive and significant effect in milk yield, but also in costs. Similar results were obtained for meat production, but the effect is weaker than in milk production, especially for infrastructure investments.Livestock Production/Industries, O13, Q14, Q16,

Muddying the Waterfall: How Ambiguous Liability Statutes Distort Creditor Priority in Condominium Foreclosures

Intentionally or not, every state’s law regarding lien priority and post-foreclosure liability allocates risk between mortgage lenders and privately governed “common interest communities” (CICs), such as condominiums. When lenders secure their interests with mortgages on property within a CIC, the mortgages may compete against the CIC’s interests for primacy in the lien hierarchy. Modern state regimes typically delineate the respective rights of mortgagees and CIC associations according to lien-priority statutes. Older condominium-enabling statutes, however, do not address CIC lien priority directly and speak only to continuing joint and several liability for subsequent purchasers. These older and more ambiguous statutes do not indicate how state law intended to — or should — balance the competing interests of mortgage lenders and community associations. Today, these vague statutes present important and politically charged issues that merit legislative consideration and clarification. Furthermore, recent case law demonstrates that a plain-meaning construction of such an un-clarified statute can produce an outcome that is wrong as a matter of law and unwise as a matter of policy. This article examines the problems of vague statutory provisions regarding assessment obligations and their effect on lien priority. It advocates for judicial interpretations that focus on the purposes and intent of these provisions while upholding basic lien-priority law, and it urges legislative clarification of the existing language