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...

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...

This paper investigates whether a small country facing foreign price instability benefits from active stabilization of the domestic price of the importable. If the random tariff revenue is rebated ex post, domestic price stabilization increases income instability, and nonintervention is optimal....

This paper examines the effects of sugar protection, as well as the effects of these other factors, on U.S. demand for imports of sugar-containing products. The paper also addresses two main issues: (1) whether substitution of alternative sweeteners has allowed U.S. food manufactures to reduce...

This paper develops a method for decomposing changes in agricultural producer prices. The method builds on a procedure used by the World Bank, with the key variables in the decomposition being trade prices, exchange rates, and agricultural trade policies. The main ways by which we expand on the...

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...

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...