Developments in international markets in recent years have transformed guar from a low value crop grown on marginal land to one that can generate substantial income for processors, manufacturers, traders and farmers. India's export of guar products, particularly guar gum powder, increased...

In der WTO-Agrarhandelsrunde von Doha geht es neben dem Abbau von Exportsubventionen und der Abschaffung von Marktzugangsbeschränkungen auch um die weitere Reduktion von internen Subventionen, die als produktions- und damit handelsverzerrend eingestuft sind. Eine Gruppe von Ländern, darunter...

We analyze the United Nations commodities trade database (UN comtrade), comprised of international commodities exchanges in volume and price with monthly resolution. We introduce a trade impact index to quantify the impact, in terms of distance travelled, of importing a specific food raw...

Bilateral and regional free trade agreements increasingly substitute for the World Trade Organization in trade negotiations. Accordingly, civil society organisations opposed to trade liberalisation target this new generation of trade agreements as well. This paper examines the case of activists...

In the Doha Round of negotiations on agriculture it has been decided that all developing and least developed Member countries of the WTO will have access to a Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM). This means that developing countries will now have the option to temporarily impose higher tariff...

Rich countries use a combination of domestic market interventions and border protection or export subsidies as a part of their domestic policies. Developed countries such as the United States and the European Union (EU) resort to trade distorting policies to make their crop more competitive -...

India is the second largest producer of the fruits and vegetables in the world after China. Since the 1980s the international trade in fruits and vegetables has expanded rapidly. The number of commodities as well as the number of varieties produced and traded have drastically increased during...

Since independence, India has come a long way from being a food-deficit to a food surplus country. With its varied agro-climatic conditions and large production base, the country has become a leading exporter of fresh and processed food products. The Indian government is keen to promote exports...

We develop a variation of the Grossman-Helpman Protection for Sale" model, where organized groups, representing various sectors of the economy, influence government policy. In particular, this paper focuses on the rise of food prices and a greater level of influence of a food sector lobby,...

We investigate whether a decline in real interest rates and the US dollar contribute to higher commodity prices, and whether commodity prices tend to display overshooting behavior in response to changes in especially real interest rates. We analyze the behavior of a broad range of real commodity...