Trade Cost form a significant part of moving goods from producer to consumer. These cost are particularly high in developing countries. As a representative country, we look at India’s apple trade. Although tariff on apple imports is high, local distribution cost are much higher. While Tariff...

The gradual elimination of quotas and tariffs from international agricultural trade has given way to non-tariff barriers such as the SPS measures. SPS standards are mostly based solely on agro-biological scientific evidence. However, over-cautiousness in standard setting may lead to trade...

While consumption of food gives material pleasure and a healthy life, contaminated food can be dangerous to health. Therefore, quality of food is very important. Even from the producers point of view, selling high quality food can be viewed as a competitive strategy to overcome competition. With...

This paper addresses the issues of consumer awareness, opinion, acceptance and willingness to pay for GM foods in the Indian market. A random utility approach is used to estimate a logit equation which indicates what factors affect the likelihood of consumption of non-GM and GM foods and whether...

India is one of the leading producers and exporters of tea. However, in the last two decades its share in the world exports has gone down considerably. On the other hand, although the domestic market is large, the per capita consumption in India is one of the lowest in the world. Therefore,...

Under the auspices of WTO, negotiations on liberalization of trade in services are expected to begin soon. One agenda at the negotiating table will be trade in educational services. Trade in educational services is too important an issue for India, and, a thorough homework needs to be done...

Problems of illiteracy, malnutrition, anaemia, vitamin-A and iodine deficiency are very common among children in India. In 2001 Supreme Court of India ruled that state governments must provide mid-day meal (MDM) to children of government assisted primary schools. The 2007-2008 budget of the...

By the end of 1999 World Trade Organization (WTO) will complete its five years of existence. At that time, re-negotiation on Agreement on Agriculture (AOA) will also begin. It is time to take a retrospective look at what were the expected gains for India, how was the AOA implemented, and ponder...

Apples have been grown in India for a century. At present apple production exceeds 1.4 million tonnes a year. Still, there are wide variations in the apple prices across the country. We test the price data for market integration using cointegration and error correction methodology. Delhi, the...

To remain quality competitive in the post-WTO regime, Indian food processing firms would have to adopt a food safety management system - Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP). It is necessary to understand, therefore, in what way the system benefits firms, and, what are the costs...