Utilising agricultural tariff rate quotas as a development instrument

Tariff rate quotas (TRQs) were introduced as a new market access instrument in the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture. The purpose of this paper is to examine the case for using this instrument to target improved market access for developing country agricultural exports, using the EU as a case study. The paper first identifies how TRQs relate to the EU's hierarchy of agricultural trade preferences under various preferential access arrangements. It then examines the extent to which developing countries have been able to make use of existing TRQ access to the EU market. Developing countries wanting improved market access for their agricultural exports have the choice of negotiating lower MFN tariffs, entering free trade agreements or regional integration schemes, seeking improved preferential access under Generalised System of Preferences schemes, or pressing for the introduction of preferential TRQs under the GATT's special and differential treatment provisions. The final section of the paper discusses the merits and drawbacks of each of these strategies.

Patterns and determinants of urban chicken consumption in Haiti and Cameroon: similar contexts, differentiated prospects

Since the beginning of 2000s, in order to let poor people accede to meat consumption, several African and Caribbean countries have opened their domestic chicken market to foreign imports, by reducing import tariffs. Thus imported frozen pieces of chicken from the European Union or America compete with local chicken meat, causing the collapse of many poultry husbandry and the loss of many jobs in the local chicken food chain. In order to highlight the determinants of urban consumer’s choice relative to chicken types, and assess the opportunity for local chicken to restore its market share, investigations have been done in 2005 in Yaoundé (Cameroon) and in 2006 in Port-au-Prince (Haiti) applied to 180 urban households in each country. While imported frozen pieces of chicken have almost entirely substituted for the local chicken which has already quite disappeared in Port-au-Prince, Yaoundé consumers still prefer the local flesh chicken to the imported ones, at least for particular uses.chicken, urban consumption, developing countries, globalization, Cameroon, Haiti

Characterizing demand for domestic versus imported chicken in developing countries: the case of Haiti and Cameroon

[Paper in French] Since the beginning of 2000s, imports of frozen pieces of chicken from the European Union or Brazil have considerably increased in several African and Caribbean developing countries, competing with local chicken meat. Obviously, imported chicken has replaced domestic one in households’ consumption. The level of substitution between imported chicken and the several domestic chicken types is not specifically known. In order to focus on this point, investigations have been done in 2005 in Yaoundé (Cameroon) and in 2006 in Port-au-Prince (Haiti). Because of a lack of available statistical data, we surveyed 180 urban households in each country, showing that imported frozen pieces of chicken have widely substituted for the local chicken which has already quite disappeared in Port-au-Prince, but is still appreciated by Yaoundé consumers. This article aims to assess the impacts, on such an evolution of i) socio-economic features of consumers and ii) of chicken consumption habits of households. Without data on income, and to deal with a large number of qualitative variables, we implemented multiple correspondence analyses to build asset indexes usable in our econometric regressions.Chicken, urban consumption, developing countries, household’s characteristics, Cameroon, Haiti

Patterns and determinants of urban chicken consumption in Haiti and Cameroon: similar contexts, differentiated prospects

Since the beginning of 2000s, in order to let poor people accede to meat consumption, several African and Caribbean countries have opened their domestic chicken market to foreign imports, by reducing import tariffs. Thus imported frozen pieces of chicken from the European Union or America compete with local chicken meat, causing the collapse of many poultry husbandry and the loss of many jobs in the local chicken food chain. In order to highlight the determinants of urban consumer’s choice relative to chicken types, and assess the opportunity for local chicken to restore its market share, investigations have been done in 2005 in Yaoundé (Cameroon) and in 2006 in Port-au-Prince (Haiti) applied to 180 urban households in each country. While imported frozen pieces of chicken have almost entirely substituted for the local chicken which has already quite disappeared in Port-au-Prince, Yaoundé consumers still prefer the local flesh chicken to the imported ones, at least for particular uses

Agricultural tariff rate quotas implementation in the EU 1997-2002 ; Do developing countries enjoy quota rent?

Tariff rate quotas (TRQs) have been introduced and legitimised as a market access instrument in the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (URAA). TRQs combine both restriction of imports, and safeguard of current or preferential agricultural trade flows. By restricting the market access through high level tariff beyond the quota, one can imagine that exporters enjoying low level tariff would take share of quota rent. Do developing exporting countries benefit from EU TRQs? Do they enjoy quota rents or guaranteed market access? What should be their interest to defend about TRQs at WTO agricultural negotiations? This article aims to present an analysis of the 87 EU's agricultural TRQs implementation from 1997 to 2002, in order to bring to the fore the effects of such an import instrument for exporting countries in competition on the import market. Some theoretical elements of the economy of TRQs are first presented in order to introduce the empirical work. The database built is then used to interpret EU agricultural TRQs implementation during the period 1997-2002, and the global results in terms of potential total rent that one can theoretically expect from TRQs is detailed by products grouping and export country grouping. A first examination of the database shows that while preference margin is potentially high for TRQs as a whole, potential rent is not so high. Moreover, this potential rent seems to be concentrated on only bananas and sugar, because TRQs are actually binding for those two commodities. A focus on those products indicates that only few exporting countries are susceptible to enjoy this potential rent: Latin American for bananas and ACP for sugar. However that does not signify that TRQs may be eliminated without big losses for exporters: they actually procure guaranteed EU's market shares protected from foreign competition

Agricultural tariff rate quotas implementation in the EU 1997-2002 ; Do developing countries enjoy quota rent?

Tariff rate quotas (TRQs) have been introduced and legitimised as a market access instrument in the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (URAA). TRQs combine both restriction of imports, and safeguard of current or preferential agricultural trade flows. By restricting the market access through high level tariff beyond the quota, one can imagine that exporters enjoying low level tariff would take share of quota rent. Do developing exporting countries benefit from EU TRQs? Do they enjoy quota rents or guaranteed market access? What should be their interest to defend about TRQs at WTO agricultural negotiations? This article aims to present an analysis of the 87 EU's agricultural TRQs implementation from 1997 to 2002, in order to bring to the fore the effects of such an import instrument for exporting countries in competition on the import market. Some theoretical elements of the economy of TRQs are first presented in order to introduce the empirical work. The database built is then used to interpret EU agricultural TRQs implementation during the period 1997-2002, and the global results in terms of potential total rent that one can theoretically expect from TRQs is detailed by products grouping and export country grouping. A first examination of the database shows that while preference margin is potentially high for TRQs as a whole, potential rent is not so high. Moreover, this potential rent seems to be concentrated on only bananas and sugar, because TRQs are actually binding for those two commodities. A focus on those products indicates that only few exporting countries are susceptible to enjoy this potential rent: Latin American for bananas and ACP for sugar. However that does not signify that TRQs may be eliminated without big losses for exporters: they actually procure guaranteed EU's market shares protected from foreign competition.tariff rate quotas, quota rent, developing countries, International Relations/Trade,

Agricultural support and vulnerability of food security to trade in developing countries

Our hypothesis is that the Bonilla Index can be used as a consistent indicator of food security vulnerability to trade at national level. In this article, we test the assumption that, with the aim of stabilizing national food availability and accessibility, developing countries use policy instruments for stabilizing their Bonilla Index. After analysing the role of the national rate of assistance and of the exchange rate vulnerability of food security to trade, we first present the Bonilla Index evolution paths of 39 developing countries from 2005 to 2010. Second, we measure the impact of their national policy responses to 2008 price surge, by using the national rate of assistance on importable food products. Finally we test, statistically, the extent to which our qualitative hypotheses and relationships are actually confirmed by the data over the period 2005-2010. Our results suggest that most developing countries have used their possibility to play with the nominal rate of assistance level to compensate the effects of the 2008 food price surge, and that exchange rate variations actually have few impact on food accessibility for consumers in a context of volatility of food prices

La politique agricole dans les négociations internationales

[fre] L'article porte sur le principal volet extérieur de la politique agricole française: les relations entre la PAC et le GATT. Il examine les liens entre l'évolution de la pac et les cycles de négociations du gatt. En dépit des nombreux problèmes apparus, la pac n'a pas changé de manière significative, même en 1984, avant la réforme de 1992 et le cycle Uruguay. La stratégie française nous paraît trop influencée par une vision à court terme de l'intérêt national basée sur le retour budgétaire et l'avantage commercial. Les concessions perçues comme mineures lors des premiers rounds du gatt ont rendu la politique céréalière intenable. La politique agricole française est paradoxale, car fondée sur le soutien des prix en situation d'exportateur structurel. Des explications de cette spécificité française sont avancées, dont le caractère supranational de la pac. L'agenda 2000 et la Loi d'orientation pourraient préfigurer une politique agricole d'avenir, cohérente avec un modèle européen de l'espace rural, si l'ensemble du soutien passait par le dispositif des cte et était fondé sur des pratiques agricoles et non sur des productions. [eng] THE FRENCH AGRICULTURAL POLICY WITHIN THE INTERNATIONAL ROUNDS : TIME OF AGGIORNAMENTO . The paper covers the main topic of the French agricultural trade policy: the cap and the gatt. We review some developments of the cap in relation to the successive gatt rounds. Against early evidence of difficulties, the cap was not significantly adjusted, even in 1984, before the 1992 reform under the pressure of the Uruguay Round and of the previous concessions making the grain policy untenable. The French agricultural strategy is seen as too narrowly focused on the financial and trade benefits derived from the customs union and the financial solidarity principle. The French agricultural policy is paradoxical for a structural exporter as it relies extensively on market support, intervention and restitutions. Some explanations of this French paradox are suggested, and the supra national nature of the cap viewed as a main factor. Agenda 2000 and the « Loi d'orientation » could launch a far reaching agricultural policy, consistent with the European model of the countryside, if the whole support to the farm sector were channelled through the system of the «Contrats territoriaux d'exploitation», based not on agricultural products volumes, but on agricultural practices and effective environmental services.

Agricultural support and vulnerability of food security to trade in developing countries

Our hypothesis is that the Bonilla Index can be used as a consistent indicator of food security vulnerability to trade at national level. In this article, we test the assumption that, with the aim of stabilizing national food availability and accessibility, developing countries use policy instruments for stabilizing their Bonilla Index. After analysing the role of the national rate of assistance and of the exchange rate vulnerability of food security to trade, we first present the Bonilla Index evolution paths of 39 developing countries from 2005 to 2010. Second, we measure the impact of their national policy responses to 2008 price surge, by using the national rate of assistance on importable food products. Finally we test, statistically, the extent to which our qualitative hypotheses and relationships are actually confirmed by the data over the period 2005-2010. Our results suggest that most developing countries have used their possibility to play with the nominal rate of assistance level to compensate the effects of the 2008 food price surge, and that exchange rate variations actually have few impact on food accessibility for consumers in a context of volatility of food prices