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...

Revision of a paper presented at the IATRC/IAAE Pre-Congress Symposium on Globalization, Macroeconomic Imbalances, and South America as the World’s Food Basket, Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, 18 August 2012.

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,...

We extend the trade restrictiveness indices (TRIs) approach to the case of market failures and domestic regulations addressing them, in presence of arbitrary tariffs and other domestic price policy distortions. We focus on standard-like non-tariff measures (NTMs) affecting cost of production and...

Cocoa is a classic Third World cash crop. It is produced mostly by small, poor farmers in Africa, while its products - chocolate and sun tan oil - are consumed by rich consumers in North America and Europe. A few West African economies are highly dependent on foreign exchange earned from cocoa...

Much confusion permeates discussions of the domestic support provisions of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture and in the ongoing Doha negotiations. The paper clarifies some conceptual distinctions with a view to dispelling some confusion, enhancing communication, and facilitating the...

This paper examines the regulation of trade in genetically modified organisms (GMOs) by the World Trade Organization (WTO). Despite rapid adoption of GMOs by a few exporters, many importers have developed relatively restrictive procedures for pre-market approval of GMOs, and are introducing...

This paper focuses on the compatibility of U.S. agri-environmental programs with the Green Box provisions of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (AoA). If a new WTO agreement is concluded under the current Doha round of negotiations, it is likely that the amount of payments that can be...