Replaced with revised version of paper 04/13/11.

The paper focuses on the importance of the assumptions made about market structure and firmbehaviors in empirical trade policy analysis. It does it with reference to the most recent changes in theEU import regime for bananas, namely the Economic Partnership Agreements and the December2009 WTO...

Trade negotiators are concerned about the possible negative effects of trade liberalisation on employment in specific sectors. The agricultural sector has characteristics that make it different from industrial or service sectors. These are an informal labour force, low productivity, relative...

xplicit modeling of tariff rate quotas (TRQs) is important in the current World Trade Organization negotiations. In order to do such modeling with GTAP, extra data is required and extra equations must be added to the model. This paper provides tools for assisting modelers to carry out explicit...

The paper discusses trends in ownership concentration in three principal stages of the food system: food retailing, food manufacturing, and selected inputs purchased by agricultural producers and by food processors. In each of these levels, the available information from North America, Western...

I have contended for some years that the principal economic problem facing commercial agriculture is instability (Tweeten 1989, p.30). Instability potentially threatens not only farmers' financial viability but also consumers' food security, given the desire for stable food consumption in the...

Agricultural support payments that cause no or minimal production distortions are exempt from World Trade Organization restrictions. If and how much decoupled payments, such as direct payments in the U.S., affect agricultural production remains an open empirical question with implications for...

There is a strong linkage between the behavior of the rice market and the state of food security inmany regions around the world, particularly in Asia, as made evident in the 2007-08 commoditycrisis. Rice is a staple for the majority of the population in Asia, where roughly 60% of the close...

The Doha Development Round of trade negotiations in the WTO aims to achieve substantial reductions in trade-distorting domestic support. The Harbinson draft modalities were tabled in March 2003, followed by less detailed draft framework texts for modalities before and during the Cancún meeting...

This paper was presented at the INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN LIVESTOCK PRODUCTS SYMPOSIUM in Auckland, New Zealand, January 18-19, 2001. The Symposium was sponsored by: the International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium, the Venture Trust, Massey University, New Zealand, and the Centre for...