Suchergebnisse

This text addresses the important issue of food prices across EU Member States. Although recent attention has focused on events in world commodity markets following the spikes in world prices in 2007-2008 and 2011, there has been comparatively little attention addressing food price dynamics at the retail level. This volume addresses the characteristics of retail food price behaviour and the nature and drivers of price transmission across the EU.

This text addresses the important issue of food prices across EU Member States. Although recent attention has focused on events in world commodity markets following the spikes in world prices in 2007-2008 and 2011, there has been comparatively little attention addressing food price dynamics at the retail level. This volume addresses the characteristics of retail food price behaviour and the nature and drivers of price transmission across the EU

In this paper, we consider the potential impact of market power on the likely effects of trade reform and how this may impact on developing country exporters. The emphasis is on trade reform in agricultural markets, one of the principal features of the Doha Round negotiations, and we discuss the mechanisms via which market power will matter for agricultural markets even if those markets themselves are competitive. Using results from a calibrated theoretical model, we show that the existence of downstream market power in vertical chains is likely to dissipate the potential benefits that would accrue to developing country agricultural exporters following trade reform.

This article analyzes the impact of border measures for climate policy on carbon leakage and the competitiveness of U.S. aluminum producers. An appropriate border measure is shown to depend on competition in aluminum production, as well as the basis for assessing trade neutrality of a border measure. If neutrality is based on market volume, carbon leakage is prevented, but competitiveness cannot be maintained. If neutrality is based on market share, competitiveness can be maintained and there is negative carbon leakage. In either case, users of aluminum incur deadweight losses from the combination of climate policy and border measures. The key policy implication of the analysis is that appropriately designed border measures for climate policy may break the link between competitiveness and carbon leakage, but their design is important in ensuring that they are not protectionist.

AbstractState trading enterprises (STEs) are widely used and can be viewed as instruments of trade policy. We analyse two aspects: the first is their potential trade distorting effect; the second is how they modify the case for the 'politically optimal' tariff. We show that the STE can reduce the need for a tariff designed for domestic redistribution. This result introduces some ambiguity about how STEs are interpreted: from a multilateralist perspective, they should be dealt with in the same way as other non‐tariff barriers; from a nationalistic perspective, they can reduce the need for 'politically optimal.'

AbstractWe review issues concerning the use of state trading enterprises (STEs) as a non‐tariff measure in importing countries. We focus on a tariff equivalent measure that captures the main features of markets where STEs are used, and we identify the factors that influence tariff equivalent effect. We supplement this discussion with case studies highlighting the potential to improve the transparency of trade‐distorting enterprises as employed across importing countries. These studies also highlight that, as the role of the STE changes, so too does the size of the tariff equivalent. Increasing the transparency of STEs can aid the treatment of them in trade negotiations.