Tariff rate quotas (TRQs) were introduced and legitimised as a market access instrument in the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (URAA). TRQs combine both restrictions on imports, as well as safeguarding current or preferential agricultural trade flows. When market access is restricted by a...

The paper provides an analysis of the structure and the importance of SPS and TBT measures in agricultural trade and tries to identify the division between genuine protection of consumers, flora and fauna and non tariff barriers. The paper covers all notifying countries and products at the HS6...

Using specific estimation of ad-valorem equivalents, the paper compares sectors where observed trade flows are significantly lower than predicted flows, with sectors where a SPS/TBT measure is notified in the TRAINS database. Only three sectors are found where a significant negative coefficient...

This paper deals with the EU's trade policy with two objectives: on the one hand, we study the performance of EU's preferential agreements in granting their partners improved market access; on the other hand, we assess the extent to which domestic sectors are effectively protected. As far as the...

This paper provides a literature review of selected aspects of economics and political economy of regional trade agreements. From a static perspective regional trade agreements have ambiguous effects on the welfare. Assumption of welfare maximization cannot explain the proliferation of regional...

The various assessments of the effects of a liberalization of world sugar markets are inconsistent with each other. One cause seems to be the modeling of the EU supply response. We investigate three possible linkages between sugar production under quota and the out-of-quota or "C" sugar supply:...

Olive oil is possibly the single globally consumed and traded product most closely linked to the Mediterranean; non-Mediterranean countries account for less than 2.5 per cent of world production. The paper addresses recent trends in the olive oil world market and the current structure of trade....

The paper provides an analysis of the impact on trade of EU preferences in the agricultural sector. An explicit measure of the intensity of preference margins at the 6-digit tariff line level it is used. Moreover, the estimation framework takes into account the heterogeneity across exporters and...

This paper reviews the empirical literature using a gravity model to assess the impact on trade of Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) and provides a critical analysis of the choices made to carry out the estimations. With respect to the effectiveness of PTAs, the main result that emerges from...