The paper develops a procedure for decomposing changes in agricultural price gaps, defined as the difference between a commodity's domestic producer and border prices. Two decomposition approaches are presented, depending on whether policy allows transmission from changes in trade prices and...

This paper examines how conventional export taxes and quotas can be modified to make them less market-distorting, and thereby less welfare-diminishing. The modified policies achieve the same economic objectives of the tax or quota, such as reducing the domestic price of the exported good,...

The United States, Canada and the Cairns Group proposed disciplines on distorting domestic support in agriculture at the WTO Committee on Agriculture in July and September 2002. This paper assesses the key features of the 2002 proposals: green box provisions, blue box provisions, de minimis...

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how consumers in Canada, like those in the United States and Europe, have changed over the last ten years and the impact this is having on how agricultural commodities are being produced, transformed, distributed and traded. It will also be important to...

Replaced with revised version of paper 01/24/08.

In recent years increased emphasis has been placed on a range of "non-trade" concerns and their implications for the move towards freer trade. We review the basis of several of these concerns, focusing particularly on multifunctionality. The simple view of a fixed proportions relationship...

We formally investigate the effects of an inspection system influencing safety of foreign and domestic food products in the domestic market. Consumers purchase domestic and imported food and value safety. Potential protectionism à la Fisher and Serra (2000) can arise: inspection frequency...

India has submitted notifications to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on domestic support to agricultural producers in 1995-2003. This paper reviews India’s notifications and summarizes the related discussion in the WTO Committee on Agriculture of some key issues relating to the rules of the...

We propose aggregation indices of Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) to quantify their protectionism relative to international standards. We apply the indices to national Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) regulations affecting agricultural and food trade and using a science-based criteria embodied in Codex...

Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) on pesticides and veterinary drugs in plant and animal products are established to promote food safety and animal and plant health. In practice, however, they are often accused of creating unnecessary trade barriers. The controversy is more prominent when a given...