China's Biotech Policies and Their Impacts on U.S. Agricultural Exports to China

China is a key player in global agricultural markets, and the number one importer of U.S. soybeans and cotton, whereby soybeans and cotton are two of the main biotech commodities commercialized in the United States. As of 2005, 87% of soybeans and 79% of cotton planted in the U.S. were biotech. Thus, changes in China's biotech policies may have a significant impact on U.S. biotech commodity exports to China. An understanding of the evolution of China's biotech regulations and factors that may influence China's future biotech policies is crucial for both U.S. producers and policymakers. This article introduces the development of China's biotech regulations in detail. Focusing on soybeans and cotton, the impact of China's biotech policy changes on U.S. trade with China are examined. Results indicate that changes in China's biotech policies in 2001 did cause delay of U.S. soybean exports to China in the short-run, immediately after China's policies were announced. However, no long term impacts on U.S. soybean exports to China were found. For cotton, a non-food commodity and China's dominant commercialized biotech commodity, it appears that U.S. cotton exports to China were not affected by China's biotech policies.International Relations/Trade, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

MARKET POWER AND COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS OF CHINA\u27S SOYBEAN IMPORT MARKET

Globally, China is the number one soybean importer, and the United States, Brazil, and Argentina are the top three soybean exporters. This research, based on the reverse residual demand model, developed and estimated a two-country partial equilibrium trade model to test who has stronger market power in the Chinese soybean import market. This two-country partial equilibrium trade model incorporates the U.S. residual soybean supply for China, the Chinese residual demand for U.S. soybeans, and the equilibrium condition, where the U.S. residual soybean supply equals the Chinese residual soybean demand. Data used in this research are monthly data from January 1999 to February 2005, 74 observations. Empirical results indicated that Chinese soybean importers have stronger market power relative to U.S. soybean exporters.This research also conducted the competitive analysis of the Chinese soybean import market by examining both annual and monthly data of Chinese soybean imports from the U.S. and South America (Brazil and Argentina). Results implied that the U.S. and South America are seasonal complementary soybean suppliers for China. Possible reasons include: 1) seasonal difference--the U.S. and South America have opposing growing seasons, i.e., different time periods to supply soybeans to markets; and 2) stronger market power of Chinese soybean importers–China\u27s strategic choice, diversifying their soybean suppliers and reducing price increase risk, made the U.S. and South America complementary soybean suppliers to China.Additionally, this research compared the soybean export costs to China for the three countries. Results showed that Brazil has the greatest advantage for production costs, followed by Argentina and the U.S.; the U.S. has the greatest advantage for internal and international transportation and marketing costs, followed by Argentina and Brazil. In aggregate, the total soybean export costs for Brazil were the lowest and the export costs for Argentina were the highest, with U.S. costs between them.In terms of policy implications for the U.S. soybean industry facing strong competition from South America, we cannot expect that U.S. market share in the Chinese soybean import market can be expanded much. With the development of infrastructure in Brazil and Argentina, the U.S. advantage will become less and less. Therefore, if the U.S. soybean industry wants to keep its current position in the Chinese soybean import market, some governmental policy supports are still necessary

Impacts of China's Food Consumption on U.S. Soybean Exports

A model examines how the international and China’s market prices impact China’s soybean imports from the U.S. and South America. Based on soybean crushing ratios and a market clearing presumption, an equation of China’s soybean oil import prices is designed to achieve the goal.China's Soybean Imports, U.S. Soybean Exports, South American Soybean Exports, Price Elasticities, Soybean Crushing Ratios, Marke Clear, GMM, Agribusiness, International Relations/Trade, Q17,

Competitive Analysis and Market Power of China’s Soybean Import Market

This research conducts a competitive structure analysis of the Chinese soybean import market which leads to the hypothesis that China’s soybean importers may have stronger market power in China’s soybean import market. Then, this research develops and simultaneously estimates a two-country partial equilibrium trade model to test U.S.-China market power of soybean trade. The empirical result supports our hypothesis that Chinese soybean importers have stronger market power relative to U.S. soybean exporters. This Chinese market power can be countered by U.S. and South American companies through developing new and expanding existing markets for soybeans throughout the world and investing in Chinese soybean storage and crushing capacity.Chinese soybean import market, competitive structure analysis, market power, two-country partial equilibrium trade model, International Relations/Trade, Marketing, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Q10, Q12, Q17,

Impacts of Observation Deleting Standards on Profitability Analysis of Precision Agriculture

This research explores a possible reason for the inconsistent results from previous study on the profitability analysis in precision agriculture - different standards of identifying possible erroneous observations for PA datasets. By comparing the results from the different standards of identifying possible erroneous observations, this research raises concerns about the negative impacts of different standards of identifying possible erroneous observations on the profitability analysis of PA, and provides some suggestions for the standard which could be used in the future profitability analysis of PA

Commercialization of Herbicide-Tolerant Soybeans in China: Perverse Domestic and International Trade Effects

Replaced with revised version of paper 06/12/07.Crop Production/Industries, International Relations/Trade,

Epithelial Neoplasia Coincides with Exacerbated Injury and Fibrotic Response in the Lungs of \u3cem\u3eGprc5a\u3c/em\u3e-Knockout Mice Following Silica Exposure

Exposure to crystalline silica is suggested to increase the risk for a variety of lung diseases, including fibrosis and lung cancer. However, epidemiological evidences for the exposure-risk relationship are ambiguous and conflicting, and experimental study from a reliable animal model to explore the relationship is lacking. We reasoned that a mouse model that is sensitive to both lung injury and tumorigenesis would be appropriate to evaluate the exposure-risk relationship. Previously, we showed that, Gprc5a-/- mice are susceptible to both lung tumorigenesis and endotoxin-induced acute lung injury. In this study, we investigated the biological consequences in Gprc5a-/- mouse model following silica exposure. Intra-tracheal administration of fine silica particles in Gprc5a-/- mice resulted in more severe lung injury and pulmonary inflammation than in wild-type mice. Moreover, an enhanced fibrogenic response, including EMT-like characteristics, was induced in the lungs of Gprc5a-/- mice compared to those from wild-type ones. Importantly, increased hyperplasia or neoplasia coincided with silica-induced tissue injury and fibrogenic response in lungs from Gprc5a-/- mice. Consistently, expression of MMP9, TGFβ1 and EGFR was significantly increased in lungs from silica-treated Gprc5a-/- mice compared to those untreated or wild-type ones. These results suggest that, the process of tissue repair coincides with tissue damages; whereas persistent tissue damages leads to abnormal repair or neoplasia. Thus, silica-induced pulmonary inflammation and injury contribute to increased neoplasia development in lungs from Gprc5a-/- mouse model

The Incidence of Adjacent Segment Degeneration after Cervical Disc Arthroplasty (CDA): A Meta Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Cervical disc arthroplasty is being used as an alternative degenerative disc disease treatment with fusion of the cervical spine in order to preserve motion. However, whether replacement arthoplasty in the spine achieves its primary patient centered objective of lowering the frequency of adjacent segment degeneration is not verified yet.We conducted a meta-analysis according to the guidelines of the Cochrane Collaboration using databases including PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and Embase. The inclusion criteria were: 1) Randomized, controlled study of degenerative disc disease of the cervical spine involving single segment or double segments using Cervical disc arthroplasty (CDA) with anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) as controls; 2) A minimum of two-year follow-up using imaging and clinical analyses; 3) Definite diagnostic evidences for "adjacent segment degeneration" and "adjacent segment disease"; 4) At least a minimum of 30 patients per population. Two authors independently selected trials; assessed methodological quality, extracted data and the results were pooled.No study has specifically compared the results of adjacent segment degenerative; Two papers describing 140 patients with 162 symptomatic cervical segment disorders and compared the rate of postoperative adjacent segment disease development between CDA and ACDF treatments, three publications describing the rate of adjacent-segment surgery including 1273 patients with symptomatic cervical segments. The result of the meta-analysis indicates that there were fewer the rate of adjacent segment disease and the rate for adjacent-segment surgery comparing CDA with ACDF, but the difference was not statistically significant.Based on available evidence, it cannot be concluded, that CDA can significantly reduce the postoperative rate of the adjacent segment degenerative and adjacent segment disease. However, due to some limitations, the results of this meta-analysis should be cautiously accepted, and further studies are needed

Issues on Adoption, Import Regulations, and Policies for Biotech Commodities in China with a Focus on Soybeans

This is journal paper number 03-04-109 of the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station.China is a key player in global agricultural markets. Soybeans are an important commodity for both the United States and China, whereby China is the leading global importer of soybeans and the United States is the leading global exporter. Soybeans are also ranked as the United States' number one export for bulk agricultural commodities, with China as the leading import market for US soybeans. As of 2003, 81% of soybeans planted in the United States were transgenic. Thus, changes in China's biotech policies will significantly impact soybean trade between the United States and China. An understanding of the evolution of China's biotech regulations and factors that mayinfluence China's future biotech policies is crucial for both US producers and policymakers. This article introduces the development of China's biotech regulations in detail. Focusing on soybeans, we assess the impacts of China's biotech policychanges on US trade with China. Finally, we identify factors that may affect China's future stance on biotechnology.Includes bibliographical reference