A Euro-Mediterranean Agricultural Trade Agreement: Benefits for the South and Costs for the EU

Free agricultural trade in the Mediterranean area is a delicate matter which brings both shores, as well as different EU countries face to face. Specially, in Spain and France the agricultural opening generates certain strain between the priorities of foreign policy and the demands of the affected sectors, as there is the generalised impression that such strain would generate important costs towards the agricultural sectors in both countries. The aim of this study is to quantify the magnitude of the effects brought about by a unilateral agricultural liberalisation developed by the EU regarding major agricultural exporters from the southern shore of the Mediterranean Sea – Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Turkey. Those effects are analysed at two levels: the supposedly positive economic impact on the south Mediterranean shore and the competitive increase for the European producers. The results suggest that the size of such effects is important for the southern countries as much as for the northern ones, and show the need for reaching a Mediterranean agricultural agreement.Agricultural market, exchange liberalisation, Common Trade Policy, Agricultural transactions between Europe and PTM

Analytical estimation of EU - Morocco potential free agricultural trade area

In this research an effort is made to point out some of the basic aspects on the discussion and extension of potential agreements in the free agricultural trade chapter from a quantitative optics. In order to support policy recommendations on how this liberalization could be made and which could be the effects for the Moroccan economy,a simulation is developed. The analysis allows, on the one hand, to determine which would be the increases in exports and imports of Morocco and, on the other hand, to incorporate Input-Output Tables and a dynamic model of structural change in the Moroccan economy, derivative of the technological development and the changes in the way of production of that country.Free Trade Agreement; EU neighbourhood policy; Agricultural liberalization; ACP; Input-Output simulation

An equilibrium model for Free Trade Area creation economic impacts estimation

In this paper, we propose a usual strategy in order to estimate the impact of a free trade area agreement between EU and Mediterranean Partner Countries (MPC's). In this frame, a dynamized Input-Output model is developed, obtaining the main economic impacts in each MPC country (employment, Value Added and GDP growth due to the new Free Trade Area).Free Trade Area Creation; Input-Output strategy; EU agricultural trade agreements; EU neighbourhood policy; free trade econometrics models

A Euro-Mediterranean Agricultural Trade Agreement: Benefits for the South and Costs for the EU

Free agricultural trade in the Mediterranean area is a delicate matter which brings both shores, as well as different EU countries face to face. Specially, in Spain and France the agricultural opening generates certain strain between the priorities of foreign policy and the demands of the affected sectors, as there is the generalised impression that such strain would generate important costs towards the agricultural sectors in both countries. The aim of this study is to quantify the magnitude of the effects brought about by a unilateral agricultural liberalisation developed by the EU regarding major agricultural exporters from the southern shore of the Mediterranean Sea – Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Turkey. Those effects are analysed at two levels: the supposedly positive economic impact on the south Mediterranean shore and the competitive increase for the European producers. The results suggest that the size of such effects is important for the southern countries as much as for the northern ones, and show the need for reaching a Mediterranean agricultural agreement

Un Modèle d’Equilibre pour la Determination des Effets Nationaux de la Creation d’une Zone de Libre Echange Agricole Euro-Mediterraneenne

In this paper, we propose a usual strategy in order to estimate the impact of a free trade area agreement between EU and Mediterranean Partner Countries (MPC's). In this frame, a dynamized Input-Output model is developed, obtaining the main economic impacts in each MPC country (employment, Value Added and GDP growth due to the new Free Trade Area)

A Euro-Mediterranean Agricultural Trade Agreement: Benefits for the South and Costs for the EU

Free agricultural trade in the Mediterranean area is a delicate matter which brings both shores, as well as different EU countries face to face. Specially, in Spain and France the agricultural opening generates certain strain between the priorities of foreign policy and the demands of the affected sectors, as there is the generalised impression that such strain would generate important costs towards the agricultural sectors in both countries. The aim of this study is to quantify the magnitude of the effects brought about by a unilateral agricultural liberalisation developed by the EU regarding major agricultural exporters from the southern shore of the Mediterranean Sea – Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Turkey. Those effects are analysed at two levels: the supposedly positive economic impact on the south Mediterranean shore and the competitive increase for the European producers. The results suggest that the size of such effects is important for the southern countries as much as for the northern ones, and show the need for reaching a Mediterranean agricultural agreement

Reintegration upon return: insights from Ecuadorian returnees from Spain

Using the ECM2 survey data on Ecuadorian migrants returning from Spain, we investigate the determinants of reintegration upon return. We study how the migration experience, but also the before- and after-migration characteristics, correlate with migrants’ outcomes upon return. We adopt a broad conception of reintegration, considering jointly labour market-related outcomes that proxy for structural reintegration and subjective indicators that provide insights on sociocultural reintegration. The determinants of these two types of outcomes appear to be different: reintegration indeed encompasses multiple dimensions which cannot be captured by a single indicator. Our results suggest that return assistance programmes’ efficiency in helping reintegration could be improved by (I) targeting, ex-ante, returnees who plan to launch their own business, and, ex-post, the most vulnerable workers (women, older returnees, unemployed), and (ii) facilitating the labour market integration of foreign-educated returnees. They also call for further research to better understand the consequences of these programmes

Quantitative in vivo

Glucose is an essential source of energy for the brain. Recently, the development of genetically encoded fluorescent biosensors has allowed real time visualization of glucose dynamics from individual neurons and astrocytes. A major difficulty for this approach, even for ratiometric sensors, is the lack of a practical method to convert such measurements into actual concentrations in ex vivo brain tissue or in vivo. Fluorescence lifetime imaging provides a strategy to overcome this. In a previous study, we reported the lifetime glucose sensor iGlucoSnFR-TS (then called SweetieTS) for monitoring changes in neuronal glucose levels in response to stimulation. This genetically encoded sensor was generated by combining the Thermus thermophilus glucose-binding protein with a circularly permuted variant of the monomeric fluorescent protein T-Sapphire. Here, we provide more details on iGlucoSnFR-TS design and characterization, as well as pH and temperature sensitivities. For accurate estimation of glucose concentrations, the sensor must be calibrated at the same temperature as the experiments. We find that when the extracellular glucose concentration is in the range 2-10 mM, the intracellular glucose concentration in hippocampal neurons from acute brain slices is ~20% of the nominal external glucose concentration (~0.4-2 mM). We also measured the cytosolic neuronal glucose concentration in vivo, finding a range of ~0.7-2.5 mM in cortical neurons from awake mice

Quantitative in vivo imaging of neuronal glucose concentrations with a genetically encoded fluorescence lifetime sensor.

Glucose is an essential source of energy for the brain. Recently, the development of genetically encoded fluorescent biosensors has allowed real time visualization of glucose dynamics from individual neurons and astrocytes. A major difficulty for this approach, even for ratiometric sensors, is the lack of a practical method to convert such measurements into actual concentrations in ex vivo brain tissue or in vivo. Fluorescence lifetime imaging provides a strategy to overcome this. In a previous study, we reported the lifetime glucose sensor iGlucoSnFR-TS (then called SweetieTS) for monitoring changes in neuronal glucose levels in response to stimulation. This genetically encoded sensor was generated by combining the Thermus thermophilus glucose-binding protein with a circularly permuted variant of the monomeric fluorescent protein T-Sapphire. Here, we provide more details on iGlucoSnFR-TS design and characterization, as well as pH and temperature sensitivities. For accurate estimation of glucose concentrations, the sensor must be calibrated at the same temperature as the experiments. We find that when the extracellular glucose concentration is in the range 2-10 mM, the intracellular glucose concentration in hippocampal neurons from acute brain slices is ~20% of the nominal external glucose concentration (~0.4-2 mM). We also measured the cytosolic neuronal glucose concentration in vivo, finding a range of ~0.7-2.5 mM in cortical neurons from awake mice