Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Trade Measures'

Trade remedy measures (TRMs) in international economic law refer to antidumping measures, countervailing duties and safeguard measures. They are designed to respond to unfair trade practices or to compensate the negative impact on domestic industries resulting from tariff concessions made under the trade liberalization arrangements. Due to the importance of these instruments, the rules on TRMs are strengthened in the WTO legal framework and established on non-discriminatory basis towards all WTO Members. However, with the proliferation of regional trade agreements (RTA) in recent decades, it was noticed that, most RTAs adopted innovative approaches on TRMs among their regional partners. Such incoherence has brought a series of trade disputes and arguments concerning the conflicts between the WTO and RTA. Current central issues in this area are whether those innovative TRMs are consistent with WTO law and what is the appropriate approach to examine the legality of those measures. Against the canvas of WTO trade remedy rules, this research first investigates the diversified trade remedy approaches in RTAs and their impact on international trade. It then clarifies the ambiguous legal criteria against which TRMs in RTAs should be judged in order to be WTO-consistent. Thereafter, a methodology through which a RTA-specific TRM could be tested against the WTO’s criteria is also developed. It is argued that facilitating TRMs in RTAs must always adhere to the criteria laid down by the WTO, e.g. GATT Article XXIV. In particular, a “necessity test” should be applied when examining the legality of a special TRM in RTAs, in the case where a dispute arises between the RTA members and third countries on the issue. In order to bring the RTA-specific TRMs into compliance with WTO law, this research also looks at the WTO surveillance mechanism on RTAs. Considering a number of difficulties that have arisen in the GATT/WTO’s surveillance of RTAs in the past, the thesis addresses what positive measures can be taken in the future and whether TRMs in RTAs should be scrutinized by WTO political organs or through the dispute settlement mechanism.

International trade has brought tremendous choice to consumers and expanded markets for producers. Cross-border exchange also brings import risks such as food contaminants and invasive species. Balancing legitimate concerns to protect health and the environment with avoiding protectionist use of risk-based measures is highly important to the integrity of the multilateral trading system. This research studies three aspects of the relation between domestic regulations and international trade. Firstly, this thesis provides evidence addressing an ongoing international policy debate. This thesis is the first to show that the 8,487 new risk-based regulations under the Sanitary Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement and 4,745 regulations under Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement notified from 1996-2010 are driven in part by loss of tariff protection and country-level environmental governance factors. Declining tariffs, however, do not make the implementation of 'suspect' SPS (i.e. measures later subject to a trade concern) more likely. This suggests policymakers may be systematically choosing to work on products that have lost tariff protection, but not systemically putting in illegitimate, non-tariff barriers to compensate. Secondly, this thesis investigates the patterns of Specific Trade Concerns (STCs) raised against 292 suspect SPS policies and 282 suspect TBT policies by members of the WTO from 1996-2010. It was found that developing countries struggle to resolve concerns they raise against developed economies. From work on 79 plant health concerns, it was clear that countries raise STCs using science-based and economics-based arguments of illegitimacy. Lastly, SPS measures are implemented to reduce risks transmitted via trade, but the effectiveness of risk reduction depends as well on actions of supply chain actors before export. A case study on coffee pests and diseases from a survey of 119 growers and 89 traders in Uganda is presented to scrutinize the decision-making process of growers in a high pest/disease prevalence environment.

Cette thèse analyse les mesures non-tarifaires et les barrières au commerce et leurs liens avec les échanges internationaux. Dans le chapitre 1, j’étudie les objectifs derrière l’implémentation des mesures non-tarifaires sur différents produits dans plusieurs pays en développement. Au-delà des objectifs légitimes, plusieurs mesures répondent à des objectifs économiques et politiques. Le chapitre 2 propose une analyse théorique et empirique du rôle des normes de qualité sur les entreprises hétérogènes et la qualité moyenne des produits exportés. Conjointement avec Anne-Célia Disdier et Carl Gaigné, nous montrons que, dans un contexte d’asymétrie d’information, l’adoption des normes engendre la sortie des entreprises de très basse qualité (quelle que soit leur productivité) et des entreprises de haute qualité et à basse productivité. Alors que la qualité moyenne des produits n’est pas affectée de manière significative, l’impact varie largement à travers les secteurs. Le chapitre 3, une collaboration avec Evgenii Monastyrenko, analyse comment les exportateurs russes et leurs clients internationaux se partagent les risques et les coûts pendant le processus d’expédition, compte tenu de leur exposition à de nombreux obstacles. Ainsi, les grands importateurs en termes de taille et nombre de partenaires assument davantage de risques et de coûts. La probabilité que les importateurs subissent davantage de responsabilités est également plus élevée dans les transactions de biens intermédiaires. Enfin, les importateurs localisés dans un pays avec un environnement propice aux affaires sont moins susceptibles d’assumer des risques et des coûts
This thesis tackles non-tariff measures and other trade-related barriers and their links to inter-national trade. In Chapter 1, I study the motivations behind the implementation of non-tariff measures on specific products in several developing countries. Beyond legitimate reasons, several measures appear to respond to economic and political motivations. Chapter 2 provides a theoretical and empirical analysis of the role of standard-like non-tariff measures on heterogeneous firms and the average quality of exported products. In this joint work with Anne-Célia Disdier and Carl Gaigné, we show that, under information asymmetry, the enforcement of standards induces the exit of very low-quality firms (regardless of their productivity), but also of high-quality low-productivity firms. While the overall average quality of exported products is not significantly affected, the impact varies significantly across sectors. Chapter 3, co-authored with Evgenii Monastyrenko, analyzes how Russian sellers and their international customers divide risks and costs throughout the shipping process, given their exposure to numerous barriers. Thus, big buyers in terms of size and number of connections appear to bear more risks and costs in international trade transactions. The probability that buyers take on more responsibilities is also higher for transactions of intermediate goods. Finally, when buyers are located in countries with a good business environment, they are less likely to take on responsibilities

This thesis estimates the impact of non-tariff measures (NTMs) notified by the importing countries on agricultural trade. The non-tariff measures constitute the technical measures notified under the SPS and TBT agreements and the non-technical measures to trade. Two approaches are used; the inventory approach and the econometric approach which makes use of the gravity model. The inventory results suggest that African countries face more restrictions on their exports than what they impose on their imports. Also, Uganda, Senegal and Mali are among the top twenty most affected importers. The empirical results suggest that the impact of the overall group on non-tariff measures is ambiguous but when measures are disaggregated into technical and non-technical measures, the results show that the technical measures promote agricultural trade and that the non-technical measures restrict trade. Also, imports of industrialized nations from fellow industrialized nations are promoted by the technical measures but are restricted by non-technical measures, while those from non-industrialized countries are affected negatively by both technical and non-technical measures. Out of the five regions considered, Africa faces the largest negative impact by both technical and non-technical measures.
Master of Science

CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO
Em problemas de decisão sob incerteza que dependam da preferência entre fluxos multi-período, como é o caso dos problemas de comercialização de contratos de energia elétrica no Brasil, o agente deve saber expressar sua preferência por diferentes distribuições em cada período e, além disso, deve também especificar uma preferência entre períodos. Classicamente a abordagem utilizada é definir um funcional de preferência de von Neumann e Morgenstern separável entre os períodos, composto pela soma da esperança de utilidades que modelam a preferência em cada período. Então, para expressar a preferência entre períodos, esta soma é ponderada por um fator de desconto que visa expressar a impaciência do agente no consumo entre os períodos. Nesta abordagem, a especificação do fator de desconto torna-se uma tarefa bastante subjetiva, uma vez que estamos ponderando utilidades esperadas e não valores monetários. Devido a essa subjetividade e da dificuldade de se especificar a própria função utilidade de cada período, os grupos de finanças divergiram para uma abordagem mais pragmática, baseada na análise e controle dos riscos assumidos em suas decisões. Neste sentido, a empresa que busca maximizar a expectativa de lucro, especifica em valores monetários, um conjunto de restrições sobre as perdas que esta está disposta a incorrer, baseando-se para isso em suas probabilidades de ocorrência. Assim, durante as ultimas quatro décadas, muitas pesquisas e desenvolvimentos foram realizados nesta área, no sentido de se estabelecer medidas de risco que proporcionassem propriedades desejáveis para essa classe de problemas. Desta forma, criou-se um gap entre as duas abordagens, financeira e econômica, as quais possuem raízes em comum: modelar o comportamento de agentes frente ao risco. Assim sendo, esta tese tem três objetivos: (i) propor uma abordagem alternativa para o uso de funções utilidades em problemas de comercialização de energia elétrica multi-período, baseada no valor presente dos equivalentes certos de cada período; (ii) mostrar como tal abordagem pode ser modelada matematicamente e formulada através de um problema de programação linear inteira mista (PLIM) ao considerarmos uma função utilidade linear por partes, e (iii) mostrar a conexão entre a teoria de utilidade e problemas de maximização da renda esperada sujeito a restrições de risco do tipo alfa-CVaR.
In decision under uncertainty problems that depend on multi- period preferences, as the case of trading electricity contracts in Brazil, agents should expresses their inter and intratemporal preferences. The classical economical approach is to define a time separable von Neumann and Morgenstern utility functional. This functional is composed by the sum of the expected utility of each period times an impatience factor that should express the agent`s intertemporal preference. This approach demands the specification of a subjective impatience factor, which should weight utilities units. Due to this subjectiveness and its estimation difficulties, the applied financial groups started to develop more pragmatic approaches based on risk control. In this sense, companies that maximize expected profit will impose constraints on acceptable losses using estimated occurrence probabilities of different outcomes. In this sense, the economical and applied financial approaches have been diverging in the last four decades and, during this time, many studies and developments have been done in the risk metrics field to generate and prove stability and coherence properties for the proposed metrics. This thesis has three main objectives: (i) propose an alternative approach for multi-period decisions problems based on the present value of the certainty equivalent of each period; (ii) show how this approach can be modeled as a mixed integer linear programming problem (MILP) when adopting a piecewise linear utility function; and (iii) provide connections between utility theory and expected maximization problems constrained to alpha-CVaR risk metrics.

Trade is largely considered a driving force of economic growth and development of nations. To this end, there is vast and far-reaching research on the subject, especially on matters international. However, research on intra-African trade is lacking in comparison to research on trade amongst the rest of the world, not just developed, but also developing countries alike. That aside there are numerous efforts put in place to enhance and encourage trade within and without the continent. The research presented in this thesis aims to investigate and address three key issues specific to intra-Africa trade. The questions asked are: are the measures currently in place successful in the promotion of intra-Africa trade; is the continent ready for measures about to be implemented and after all that, is trade really the key driving force for economic growth and development within Africa? To answer these questions, the research presented here in this thesis employs the gravity modelling approach, the G-PPP test and develops a macro-economic model which is applied to the Kenyan economy. The results indicate that; yes, trade is significant and important in determining economic growth, and while measures taken thus far such as the creation of Economic Integrations have not been as successful as was envisioned, trade openness continues to be among the most important ways in which trade is encouraged and enhanced, to this end, although the continent is yet to fulfil all the requirements for the formation of a full-blown Economic Union, it is ready for drastic measures such as the formation of a currency union. Literature reveals that this could form the basis of hastening complete integration and harmonization of all systems of the participating economies, thereby benefiting not just trade but also all other sectors of the economies.

Fifteen countries which are members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have embarked on a regional integration initiative. In 1996, a trade protocol that aimed to increase trade among members by removing trade barriers was signed. In the year 2000, this protocol was implemented, leading to a Free Trade Area (FTA) in 2008. More than 85 % of SADC trade was free of customs duties from 2008 onwards. However, while custom tariffs were reduced, the share of SADC trade did not show any improvement over the tenyear period after implementing the trade protocol. Accordingly, the objective of this study is to examine the factors which contributed to lack of improvement in SADC trade, particularly the role of Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs). One of the main challenges in analysing NTMs in SADC is the unavailability of relevant information. An SADC NTM database was built as a repository of official NTMs. In order to quantify NTMs, a database was classified, similarly to the international database. Agricultural products at HS 4-digit level for ten SADC countries were included in this repository, and groupedinto six main categories; namely animal products, cereals, horticultural products, oilseeds, industrial and processed products. The trade data challenges within SADC countries inadvertently prescribed the econometric methods to apply for the set objectives of the study. The two main challenges of SADC trade data are missing data for some years and high percentage of zero trade flows. A latent threshold gravity model was employed with hierarchical specification to control for country effects. The hierarchical model captures individual country effects, such as the impact of NTMs on trade volumes, and thus intra-SADC trade. Such impact was then assessed when an additional NTM is introduced or increases trade volumes. The two effect models were examining the attributes of changes in regional trade, as well as those attributes of change in NTMs. The effects NTMs were incorporated into the model by weighting the number of NTMs by share of trade in the region, as well as ranks of country NTMs within product groups. Types of NTMs which were estimated are Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary measures (SPS), Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and an aggregation of all other NTMs which do not belong to the two groups. Results show that there is evidence NTMs were increasing at the same period when tariffs were being reduced. Using the inventory methods of evaluating presence and prevalence of NTMs, it was also evident that NTMs are used across most agricultural products. The percentage of products affected by NTMs in 2010 was much higher than in 2000. The econometric model results show that all gravity model variables, GDP, border and language were consistent with the theoretical expectations.Distance does nothave significant influence on SADC trade. The reason for this has to do with the trading pattern of SADC countries, which is very high between contiguous members, compared to non-contiguous members. The estimation of zero observed trade, using a threshold model, provided additional understanding of the role and reasons for such trade. The estimated effects of the observed zero trade showed that if this threshold is high, implying that trade costs (NTMs) are restricting trade, then zero trade was observed. When high percentage of zero trade is observed, then intra-SADC trade remains small or declines. However, if the threshold is low, intra-SADC trade increases, as was observed in the case of industrial products. The overall results confirm that NTMs do have an impact on intra-SADC trade. Industrial and cereal products are more responsive to NTMs than the other five product groups. A unit change in NTMs by regional trade members has more effects on intra- regional trade than a unit change in trade value. That is the case because the SADC is already exchanging a large share of its total trade with non-SADC members. Therefore, attention should be given to addressing the way NTMs are introduced. One of the important findings from the study is that the intra-SADC trade is affected more by the effect of an additional NTM, than an additional unit of trade in value. The effect of addressing NTMs is one and half more than those of additional trade value. So, in order to improve intra-SADC trade performance, focus must on addressing the NTMs and growing trade. In addressing NTMs, it does not necessarily require removing or even reducing them. It is about making it easy to comply with them. SADC trade can be improved substantially by aiming to harmonise NTMs and overall policies.
Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2014.
lk2014
Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development
PhD
unrestricted

Global concern on illegal logging has led to the imposition of binding trade related environmental measures on trade of timber and timber products by developed countries like the US, EU and Australia. This dissertation examines the effect of the binding measures on Peninsular Malaysia’s forest sector and timber trade. Putnam’s two-level game theory is applied, to demonstrate the interdependence of politics at the international level with the domestic level. There is a need to have a “win-set” between the international and domestic levels whereby an agreement reached by stakeholders at Level II (discussions at the domestic level) will help to make the bargaining at Level 1 a success (bargaining between negotiators which leads to a tentative agreement). In the case of Peninsular Malaysia’s forest sector and timber trade, it has been acknowledged that the measures imposed by the EU through FLEGT VPA/EUTR and to a lesser extent by Australia through its ILPA/ILPAR as well as the US with its Lacey Act amendments, have brought about changes in policy and administration. Thus, the Federal Government of Malaysia, specifically in the FLEGT VPA negotiations have an important task in managing domestic stakeholders’ demands for development, taking into account the unique Federal-State relations on land and forest matters as well as managing its international commitments to ensure trade in sustainable and/or legal timber. The policy reaction of the Federal Government of Malaysia to the measures imposed was analysed using Schoppa’s analysis of the concept of “synergistic linkages” and “reverberation”. On this note, case studies were conducted on Peninsular Malaysia’s forest sector and timber industry as well as the binding measures with specific focus on EU FLEGT VPA/EUTR. To substantiate the findings of the case studies, empirical evidence were gathered from primary interviews with experts from government or agency officials, Timber Industry Associations, environmental and social NGOs and international organizations. Further, focus group discussions were held with four states in Peninsular Malaysia to understand the position of the states. The findings show that it is important for the Federal Government to gain the support and commitment of State Governments on such measures. Therefore, the demands of State Governments for extra funding, resources, equipment and manpower to implement the sustainable and/or legal commitments need to be addressed. Furthermore, NGO criticism about not being properly consulted or given an effective role in government initiatives or meetings, also needs to be taken into account. There is also a need for greater political will by the Malaysian Government, to ensure the success of any negotiations or binding measures imposed. This dissertation indicates the importance of a Level II agreement to ensure the success of a Level I agreement of current negotiations pertaining to Peninsular Malaysia’s forest sector and timber trade.

U.S. imports of fresh fruits and vegetables have increased sharply since the late 1980's. With increased imports come increased concerns that pests and diseases may infest shipments of fresh agricultural products. To address this concern, USDA's APHIS implements phytosanitary measures that mitigate pest and disease risks. These regulations vary from documentation requirements, inspection, or requiring that shipments receive a phytosanitary treatment. A growing body of literature attempts to assess the generic trade flow effects of SPS measures. Still, little evidence is available to shed light on the nature, size, and scope of SPS standards and their role as "trade barriers" versus "trade catalysts." This thesis fills the void in the literature in two respects. First, a novel database on phytosanitary measures pertaining to U.S. imports of 47 fresh fruit and vegetable products from 95 countries is developed for the period 1996-2007. This disaggregated approach allows for the effects of specific phytosanitary treatments to be identified. Second, following recent literature, the issue of "zeros" is addressed while estimating a gravity model of international trade. The findings suggest that phytosanitary treatments initially inhibit fresh fruit and vegetable imports. However, their trade reducing effects are uneven across product sectors, development status categories and treatment types. Finally, globally large exporters facing a treatment requirement ship more fresh fruits and vegetable relative to small exporters facing the same regulation, suggesting the role of SPS measures as "trade barriers" versus "trade catalysts" depends on the relative size of the exporter in the global market.
Master of Science

I have conducted a survey of journal articles that have examined the relationship between free trade and economic growth. In particular, I have carefully selected six empirical studies that were published over a ten-year period and critically reviewed, and evaluated these studies in depth. I have also extensively presented and discussed the issues as well as the controversies that are related to the various measures of openness. In a number of the trade-growth empirical studies researchers have made major attempt to identify the relationship between free trade and economic growth. Most of the trade-growth studies show that there is a positive relationship between free trade and economic growth. However, some of these influential studies have been subject to strong criticism, mainly due to a number of methodological shortcomings. As for the million-dollar question: Does free trade advance economic growth? My conclusion is that this question is not yet resolved, because although researchers have devoted considerable efforts to show a positive trade-growth relationship, nevertheless, the methodologies and the measurements applied in these studies have been fragile to the scrutiny of critics.

This dissertation consists of three essays examining the impacts of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures on agricultural trade. The first essay estimates the impact of the 2003 Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) outbreak in the US on Japanese beef imports. I develop a source-differentiated demand system of fresh/chilled and frozen beef imports augmented with endogenous smooth transition functions. Results suggest that over one-half of the estimated income, own-price, and cross-price elasticities reached a new regime in the post-BSE period of Japanese beef imports where the competitive relationship and substitutability between US and Australian beef exports changed significantly. The second essay develops a product-line structural gravity model to estimate the trade flow effects of SPS measures that have been flagged as specific trade concerns in the World Trade Organization's (WTO's) SPS Committee meetings for the top 30 agricultural trading countries covering four major product sectors. Our findings are striking and call attention to the need for a deeper understanding of the impacts of SPS measures on WTO members' agricultural trade. Results show that the trade effects of SPS trade concern measures reduce exporters' agricultural trade by 67%, on average, during periods in which concerns were active. Significant heterogeneity in the trade effect of SPS measures exists with average estimated ad valorem equivalent tariffs ranging from 33% to 106%. The AVE effect of SPS concern measures maintained by the US is estimated at 42%, less than a half (a third) of the AVE effects of SPS concern measures imposed by the European Union (China). China's restrictions on Avian Influenza and ractopamine restrictions in pork exports are estimated to be the most prohibitive, causing an AVE effect of 120.3% and 88.9%, respectively. The third essay develops a discrete-time duration model to examine the extent to which these SPS concern measures affect the hazard rate of US agri-food exports during the 1995-2016 period. Results show that SPS concern measures raise the hazard rate of US agri-food exports by a range of 2.1%~15.3%, causing the predicted hazard rate to increase from 21.8% to a range of 23.6%~27.9%. This effect is heterogeneous across different agricultural sectors, with the most substantial effects occurring in US exports of meat, fruits, and vegetables.
Doctor of Philosophy
This dissertation consists of three essays on the examination of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures and their impacts on agricultural trade. The first essay estimates the impact of the US 2003 Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) outbreaks on Japanese beef imports. Using a source-differentiated demand system of fresh/chilled and frozen beef imports embedded with endogenous smooth transition functions, we find that over one-half of the estimated income, own-price, and cross-price elasticities have changed remarkably, causing the Japanese beef import market to reach a new regime in the post-BSE period where the substitution and/or competition relationships between the US and Australia have changed. The second essay develops a product-line structural gravity model to estimate the trade effects of SPS measures flagged as concerns in the WTO's SPS Committee meetings for the top 30 agricultural trading countries covering four major product sectors. Results show that the trade effects of SPS concern measures are negative and significant, with the average estimated AVE tariffs ranging 33%~106%. The AVE effect of SPS concern measures maintained by the US is estimated to be 42%, less than a half (a third) of the AVE effects of SPS concern measures imposed by the European Union (China). China's restrictions on Avian Influenza and various ractopamine restrictions in the production and export of pork products are estimated to be the most prohibitive, causing an AVE effect of 120.3% and 88.9%, respectively. The third essay applies a discrete-time duration model to examine the extent to which SPS concern measures affect the hazard rate of US agri-food exports in 1995-2016. Results show that SPS concern measures raise the hazard rate of US agri-food exports by a range of 2.1%~15.3%, causing the predicted hazard rate to increase from 21.8% to a range of 23.6%~27.9%. This effect is heterogeneous across different agricultural sectors, with the most substantial effects occurring in US exports of meat, fruits, and vegetables.

One of the central preoccupations of international relations scholars is to explain and elaborate the conditions under which international co-operation will occur. In particular, the 'international regimes' literature investigates how states attempt to manage collective action problems such as threats to the global environment. While there has been much progress in our understanding of the conditions required for the formation and maintenance of regimes, the question of regime content - also known as regime properties or institutional design - has been neglected. A second aspect of international co-operation yet to be fully treated is issue linkage. How does one regime - and its provisions - interact with another. The thesis addresses these issues by investigating a specific question: under what conditions will trade restrictive measures be incorporated into a multilateral environmental agreement (MEA). In addition to the regime analysis literature, I draw upon the 'trade and environment' literature on the interaction between trade policy and environmental policy to strengthen the analytical framework. The debate regarding potential conflicts between the rules of the World Trade Organization and the trade measures employed in various MEAs is particularly useful. A review of the contributions and gaps of the relevant literatures provides the basis for selecting four factors - power, costs and benefits, knowledge, and institutional forum - that are used to answer the research question. The use of trade restrictions is examined in the two pre-UNCED MEAs that are most clearly at the intersection of trade and environment: the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer and the 1989 Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes. The thesis then extends the analysis to consider the future of trade restrictive measures in MEAs by applying the conclusions drawn from the two in-depth case studies to two post-UNCED MEAs: the 1998 Rotterdam Convention for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade and the planned Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. It is found that while power, costs and benefits, and institutional forum contribute in different degrees to understanding the factors influencing regime content, traditional knowledge-based regime analysis approaches fail to do so. Thus, a broader approach to examining the role of knowledge - analysing the influence of the Dominant Social Paradigm - is employed and demonstrated to have strong explanatory power.

The links and overlapping areas of concern between international trade policy and environment policy are many and varied, and a number of often competing interests at stake, each of which must be accommodated. Thus far, the debate on this issue has been characterised by a distinct lack of agreement on how to proceed, due to a lack of a common analytical framework; each of the main communities in the debate have sought to impose their agendas, priorities and analyses. In light of this, the first purpose of this thesis is to determine whether or not there exists a legitimate role for international trade policy instruments in the conduct of environment policy. This enquiry takes to be indisputable that the protection and maintenance of a healthy and stable environment must be accorded a higher priority than anything else, including the international trading system, to the extent that they are otherwise irreconcilable. Therefore, Chapter 2 examines the basis on which environmental standards should be established, and the extent to which they should be harmonised. To determine whether the use of trade policy instruments to achieve the necessary environmental standards should be considered legitimate, Chapters 3, 4 and 5 present and discuss three tests. It is argued that the use of trade-related environmental policy instruments (TREPI) should be considered to be legitimate only if it meets all three of these tests. This three-part legitimacy test describes a decision-making process, and is a useful way of organising and analysing policy problems concerning the relationship between international trade policy and environment policy. Chapter 6 considers two actual disputes and a potential case to show how this legitimacy test might work. This latter case involves the analysis of significant new evidence about the commercial impact of environmental and animal welfare regulations on UK agriculture. By adopting the simple approach proposed in this thesis we seek to avoid the fundamental conflict caused by the epistemological and analytical assumptions and biases of each of the three communities: the international trade community, the environmental community, and the development community. Instead a more objective means of considering the complex of issues is proposed. The three tests are independent of any of the three communities and, in their simplicity, could be applied to a wide range of problems. Applied to the trade and environment issue, they demonstrate their objectivity by the conclusions they lead to: on some points they lend support to the interests of each of the three communities, while on others they do not. To the extent that an appropriate role for trade policy instruments in the conduct of environment policy is found, the second purpose of this enquiry is to consider whether or not, and in what ways, the current international trading system frustrates or facilitates such a use. Chapter 7 discusses, in three parts, the environmental effects of international trade liberalisation. In Chapter 8, the scope for possible amendments to the GATT system is considered by reference to the environmental provisions of the NAFTA. Finally, the use of domestic trade remedy laws as environment policy instruments is considered in Chapter 9.

Trade may increase or decrease by imposing food standards. Thus there is not yet a clear trend whether the standards promote or hinder trade. From political point of view, a standard is considered as trade protectionist tool, which in agricultural trade takes the form of the so-called non-tariff measure (NTMs) including the Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs), which is in the focus of this research work. The objective of this work is to quantify the protectionism of MRLs standards relative to the stringency of international standards of Codex Alimentarius and to give insights on the effects of European MRL standards on trade versus US and other countries. The empirical approach of gravity model is used to explain international trade flows. For the quantification of the protectionism we implement the aggregation index of NTMs established by Li and Beghin (2014). An importer’s MRL is defined as protectionist when the stringency of MRL standards exceeds the levels of Codex’s MRL. In our research work, the country-level results show that Europe has more protectionist food standards, compared to US.

This thesis examines the effects on demand, supply, imports, and prices of partial easing of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) barriers to trade in the U.S. market in the case of Mexican avocados. The SPS Agreement plays a role in the avocado market studied here through its implications for negotiations between countries that have not utilized the formal channels of the WTO for resolving disputes. A quarantine in place from 1914 until very recently banned entry of Mexican avocados into the U.S. market on grounds of risk of pest infestation. Since the early 1970s this quarantine has been a cause of dispute between the Mexican and U.S. governments, resulting in elaborate evaluations of possible pest risks and risk mitigation procedures that might be carried out. However, after the initiation of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1991, the import ban was partially eased in 1995 allowing Mexico access to the Northeastern part of the U.S. during four winter months. After three years of successfully exporting without any pest outbreaks, Mexico requested increased access to an additional part of the U.S. market, which it was granted in 2001. This study develops a partial equilibrium trade model to investigate the effects that this increased access will have on the avocados markets. Hypothesized further increases in access are described, and their potential effects are evaluated as well.
Master of Science

Magister Legum - LLM
It has been held that agricultural domestic support would not be such a contentious issue if its only effect was the benefit of local farmers, but this is not the case.1 It was found that several forms of domestic support have the effect of distorting the patterns of agricultural production and trade at an international level, leaving non-supported farmers elsewhere worse off.2 It was thus concluded that such support measures may indeed nullify the benefits which accrue from trade liberalisation and explains how the AoA3 regulates these measures in a way that reduces their trade distorting effects.4 It has been noted that the agricultural sector only accounted for a small percentage of the developed world's Gross Domestic Product {GDP}, yet the regulation of international agricultural trade was not an easy task.5 Smith explains that numerous attempts were made to implement some form of regulation, including a half-hearted effort in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the subsequent AoA upon the creation of the WTO in 1995.6 According to Smith, the successful regulation of international agricultural trade remained elusive, despite Desta MG and McMahon JA explain that the WTO is not very concerned with countries that provide domestic support to their agricultural sectors, as this only matters to the extent that it hopes for liberalising trade in the sector.7 affects trade in that sector.8 It is further observed that the AoA balances out the freedom to provide domestic support with the need to reduce or eliminate the trade distortive effects thereof and note that the AoA has essentially made all forms of domestic support more transparent and easier to deal with.9 A party is therefore unlikely to be challenged, successfully, if domestic support is given in accordance with the provisions of the AoA.10 The aforementioned views only seem to address the merits of the AoA and the way in which it regulates the use of agricultural subsidies. It should however be noted that the literature fails to address the fact that the WTO has not enforced the provisions of the AoA very effectively against the EU and the USA, in light of the continued misuse of subsidies within both parties. In this regard it must be ascertained whether the WTO should impose stricter penalties as a means to deter its member states, especially the EU and USA, from using subsidies in an abusive way. In addition to this, it must be determined which types of penalties can and should be imposed.

Antidumping policies have developed into essential trade elements in the local and global markets as they can facilitate the adoption of favorable trade policies. The introduction of antidumping policies in South Africa across GVCs has remained instrumental as they have directly influenced the social and economic structures of GVCs and local businesses operating in the region. Anti-dumping policies remain crucial in the development of a competitive and fair business environment. The study explores the impact of anti-dumping policies on GVCs in South Africa through a review of the economic, financial, cultural and social influences of the policies on the local businesses and environment. The review of anti-dumping policies and consequent impact on GVCs remained crucial in the identification of the importance and impact of policy on local and global businesses. The analysis provides an exploration of the impact of globalization and a changing business environment on the workings of an organization and the global market. The study adopts a quantitative analysis that utilized correlation analysis in identifying the impact of anti-dumping policies on GVCs. The results highlight the importance of anti-dumping policies and consequent impact GVCs in South Africa. The majority of the study respondents maintain that the adopted anti-dumping measures remained in-line with the adopted global trade objectives, but also highlighted the existence of a shortfall within the policy implementation process in South Africa. The majority of the respondents maintain that there was no need to remove the historically adopted policies as they remain relevant to the modern day trade processes. However, the study respondents maintain that several additions and changes may be incorporated to cater to the changing trade needs presented by the market. The adoption of recommendations would facilitate the development of a strong trade policy that would promote the strengthening of regional ties. Therefore, the majority of respondents remained in favor of the AD policies in relation to competitive policies and promoted the adoption of additional policies relating to the reduction of labor disruptions, improved infrastructure and the education system. The development of effective manufacturing and implementation systems together with adoption of effective logistical processes would facilitate the adoption and success of the existent trade regulations.

This dissertation explores technical regulations (sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures, technical barriers to trade, and geographical indications) in Central American agricultural and food trade. In the first part, a framework to systematically evaluate the broad issues for developing countries is presented. Evaluation of the issues for Central America is based on interviews with about 100 persons in the region and in the United States (US), and on secondary sources. The topic is of significance in Central America, especially when related to SPS measures. The World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreements have had relatively little direct impact in improving Central Americaâ s response to technical regulations, while homologous Central American regional institutions may have been more successful, with indirect support from the WTO and the US, in reducing the incidence of illegitimate regulations in intra-regional trade. Central America may implement illegitimate barriers more against others in the region than against the US. Although the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) may support Central Americaâ s capacity to meet more stringent technical regulations, the improvement may not be sufficiently perceptible. The potential for Central American greenhouse tomato exports to the US is analytically evaluated in the second part. These tomatoes may be admitted as the ban based on the risk of introduction of the Mediterranean fruit fly is partially lifted, due in part on discussions in the CAFTA negotiations. Mature green, vine-ripe and greenhouse tomatoes are heterogeneous in demand, and vine-ripe tomatoes are but greenhouse tomatoes are not heterogeneous by origin. A static partial equilibrium model is constructed for the US tomato market, where demand is based on multi-stage budgeting and supply is a function of own tomato price. When the Central American greenhouse excess supply function is introduced to the model, the region exports to the US, the aggregate greenhouse quantity increases, and its prices decrease. As greenhouse preference increases, greenhouse quantity and prices also increase. Changes are perceptible but small in the mature green and vine-ripe markets in the expected direction. Access by Central America is particularly beneficial when US consumer preferences shift further toward greenhouse over other tomatoes.
Ph. D.

Over the last 2 centuries international law in relation to the law of the sea and fisheries has been progressively evolving. For a long time, general norms of international law, such as the principle of freedom of fishing in the high seas and the principle of pacta tertiis, have been immutable. The situation has drastically changed with the emergence of a modern approach to fisheries after the UNCED in 1992. Developments occurred ever since, most notably at regional level within RFMOs, attest to the existence of new norms. These norms mainly revolve around a duty of cooperation for all fishing States, including those that ar not Parties to RFMOs. Non Parties that fish in disregard of conservation measures in place are targeted through the adoption of trade measures against them. This recent practice might violate the legal framework established under the WTO. However, it seems possible to avoid conflicts between trade measures and the WTO by ensuring mutual supportiveness between environmental norms and trade norms. This ultimately demonstrates that trade measures against third States can be adopted and, consequently, the evolution of international law in relation to the law of the sea and fisheries.

Regulation of border and behind-the-border measures in the oil and gas sectors presents the ‘resource access’ challenge with immense economic ramifications for export markets, yet their status under the multilateral trading regime remains obscure. Recent developments that could reshape the trading regime and market dynamics for oil and gas have seen the call for a global energy governance gain momentum in recent years. But the complex relationships between national laws, institutional norms, and the multilateral trading regime regulating energy presents an ideological ‘conflict in applicable law’. They reveal a conflict between regulatory privileges enshrined in energy resource-focused institutions namely: OPEC as a producer-only treaty, the ECT as a sector-specific multilateral energy treaty, national energy laws on the heel of the PSNR principle as a customary international law; versus international obligations under the GATT rules relevant to energy. These regimes have the trappings of nationalism, regionalism, and institutionalism in energy regulation, thereby creating an ambiguous path to global energy governance. This research revisits the institutional and regulatory architecture of oil and gas regimes from the perspective of quota measures and trade-related investment measures (TRIMs) implemented through the instrumentality of national laws, acts of NOCs (in the oil sector) and acts of non-state undertakings (in the gas sector). It therefore charts an uncommon territory and brings a new dimension to the discipline of energy and trade, with a robust examination of how regulation of quota measures and trade-related investment in the oil sector (with export restriction issues) differs from their regulation in the gas sector (with underlying competition issues) and how their varying trade effects shape their future in international economic law. Given the inherent conflicts between the legal, policy, and regulatory design of these regimes governing energy, this research first explores and applies the principle of conflict of norms to energy governance. This paves way for a hands-on approach to examining the applications of these measures under the auspices of these regimes aimed at a ‘co-operative energy governance’ between the resource-focused regimes and the GATT rules relevant to energy on the basis of their trade effects. I argue that an understanding of ‘quota measures’ and ‘TRIMs’ in the oil sector compared to their implementations in the gas sector is compelling in making a case for a systemic energy cooperation that would serve economic interests of all affected states without diminishing the normative value of each regime in each sector.

Many of the 10 Central European candidate member countries for EU accession entered into the transition period with strongly undervalued exchange rates to stimulate exports and protect domestic industries. However, this policy was not maintained. During 1993-1995 real currency appreciation increased competitive pressure by foreign firms. To protect domestic firms governments applied high third country tariffs, temporary import taxes, and numerous administrative barriers to trade. As countervailing pressure by the EU and the USA increased and current account deficits soared in 1996 and 1997, the CE-10 more and more brought exchange rate policies in line with the changes in purchasing power parity. However, petty protection and harassment of importers prevails. (author's abstract)
Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) displayed notable success in pushing for trade liberalisation through tariff reductions. This was achieved following the signing of the SADC protocol on trade in 1996. The implementation of the protocol commenced in 2000. About 85 % of intra-SADC trade was free of duty in 2008 and the Southern African Development Community Free Trade Area (SADC-FTA) was launched. Maximum tariff reductions were achieved in 2012. The main aim for SADC tariff reductions under the trade protocol was to improve intra-SADC trade. However, this is not what happened, since the relationship between tariffs and trade was not inverse as assumed. The response of intra-SADC agricultural trade to tariff liberalisation was disappointing. This study investigated why there has been lack of trade improvement, even though tariff liberalisation has been achieved in SADC. The study, however, is limited to a focus on the meat trade between SACU countries and Zambia. The trading partners were selected for the study since they all displayed substantial progress in implementing their tariff liberalisation commitments under the SADC protocol on trade. The meat trade was chosen for this study due to the importance of livestock to the people of these countries. Prior assessments of trade statistics revealed that the meat trade between SACU countries and Zambia has remained very low, notwithstanding tariff liberalisation. As a result, the main objective of the study was to investigate why there has been little improvement in the meat trade between these countries following tariff liberalisation. It is documented in the trade literature that the continuous decline in tariffs prompted the use of non-tariff measures (NTMs) in regulating trade. This study investigated if NTMs contributed to low levels of meat trade between the trading partners. In particular, the study examined the impact of NTMs on the meat trade between SACU countries and Zambia over the period 2001 to 2013. The study also examined the impact of GDP per capita and meat production volumes. The gravity model was preferred for this study, based on the model?s outstanding achievements when explaining bilateral trade relationships. Due to the prevalence of zero trade observations, the study used the Heckman sample selection model to estimate the gravity equation. The estimation model was chosen due to its exceptional capability in dealing with zero trade observations as well as sample selection bias. The results confirmed the observation that the relationship between tariffs and trade in meat is not inverse, as expected. It found a statistically insignificant relationship, further confirming the fact that tariff liberalisation had not influenced improvement in meat trade between the trading partners. The study found a statistically significant, negative effect of NTMs on meat trade. As a result, the study concluded that NTMs contributed to low meat trade between SACU countries and Zambia. The results found a positive and statistically significant relationship between GDP per capita and meat trade, and a negative and statistically significant relationship between meat production volumes and trade.
Dissertation (MSc (Agric))--University of Pretoria, 2018.
Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development
MSc (Agric)
Unrestricted

The law of the World Trade Organization (WTO) both explicitly and implicitly requires that a determination of causation be made at a number of points. In several of the WTO covered agreements, an important part of making a determination about causation involves separating those factors that are causative from those that are immaterial to the outcome in question (this process of separation is known as a 'non-attribution analysis'). This thesis argues that there are six parts of the law of the WTO that require, either explicitly or implicitly, that a causation and non-attribution analysis be undertaken. These are: (1) Safeguard Measures (Articles 2.1 and 4.2(a) and (b) of the Agreement on Safeguards ); (2) Anti-Dumping measures (Articles 3.1 and 3.5 of the Anti-Dumping Agreement ); (3) Countervailing Duties (Article 15.5 of the Subsidies and Countervailing Measures Agreement (SCM Agreement)); (4) Serious prejudice (Articles 5(c) and 6.3 of the SCM Agreement); (5) the relationship between a measure and its policy objective (Article XX of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and Article XIV of the General Agreement on Trade in Services ); and (6) the relationship between a responding Member's failure to comply with a DSB ruling and the complainant Member's level of nullification and impairment (Articles 22.6 of the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes and 4.10 of the SCM Agreement). This thesis will first examine the current approach in the jurisprudence to analysing causation and non-attribution in these parts of the law of the WTO. To that end, it will suggest that there is a trend in the current jurisprudence to attempt to make an a priori inference about the effects of a cause from the nature of the cause itself. This thesis will suggest that this approach reflects a misconception of causation, and it will propose an alternative, three-part methodology for interrogating causation based on the use of econometric analysis, which has been developed from guidance given by the Appellate Body in US-Wheat Gluten.

The effect of Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) on agri-food trade has drawn broad research interest and gained a substantial attention by scientific community as well as by policy makers. Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) standards among others represent a major challenge for trade policy and food safety. The identification and measurement of the economic implications of NTMs require the use of an adequate both methodological and empirical framework to derive sound estimates. By targeting economic sectors and issues not previously investigated, this Thesis contributes to previous literature on determining the factors that affect the implementation of SPS and their effects on trade flows. Four specific objectives have been pursued in four papers that constitute the main body of the present Thesis. The main purpose of the first paper is to investigate the scope of the reputation effect over time. To do so, we use The European Union (EU)'s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) data on sanitary and phytosanitary notifications from 1998 to 2013. Two count data models have been implemented to estimate the distribution of current notifications. In line with previous literature, our findings indicate that reputation does affect current EU notifications. Furthermore, we identify some relevant exporter countries for which reputation is long-lasting. The second paper aims at analyzing the behavior of the EU in controlling Aflatoxin (AF) contamination with respect to tree nuts and groundnuts for the period (1998-2015). To conduct this analysis, we have used a count data model, based on political economy considerations, past alerts and path dependence effects. Policy changes, including harmonization of AF standards and their further relaxing are estimated to have significant impact on the frequency of border controls. In the third paper, we seek to assess the influencing factors on food standard enforcement in the EU with a special attention to agri-food imports from Mediterranean countries. We explore if there is any special treatment toward Mediterranean countries in controlling agri-food imports, testing if past border notifications affect current decisions on the implementation of food standards by the EU. RASFF notifications data over the period 2000-2012, and count data models are used for this purpose. Our empirical results support the hypothesis that previous food notifications may slightly affect current notifications; nevertheless, this effect seems to be less relevant for products of interest for Mediterranean Partner Countries. Hence, we cannot identify a pro or anti Mediterranean bias in the way that food safety controls are implemented at the EU borders. The last paper focuses on the assessment of the competitiveness of the Tunisian agri-food sector before signing the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA) with the EU. Specifically, competitive advantage measurement, based on the Tunisian National Institute of Statistics (INS) data over 2007-2012 period, has been used for this purpose. The analysis of the Tunisian agri-food sector reveals an important potential for exporting some agri-food staples. Recently, Tunisia is facing new challenges in exporting strategic products underlying the importance of adopting new business and marketing strategies or prospecting new markets. However, some agri-food subsectors, mainly animal products, milk and dairy products and cereals, remain unprepared to overcome the costs of the DCFTA due to their low competitiveness. Hence, Tunisian authorities could propose a progressive trade liberalization strategy with the EU.
El efecto de las medidas no arancelarias sobre el comercio agroalimentario ha generado un amplio interés en la investigación y ha recibido una atención considerable por parte de la comunidad científica y de los políticos de comercio. Las Medidas Sanitarias y Fitosanitarias (MSP), entre otras, representan un reto importante para la política comercial y la inocuidad de los alimentos. La identificación y medición de las implicaciones económicas de las MNT requieren el uso de un marco metodológico o empírico adecuado para derivar estimaciones sólidas. Al enfocarse en sectores económicos y temas no investigados previamente, esta tesis contribuye a la literatura previa sobre la determinación de los factores que afectan la implementación del MSP. La tesis estudia cuatro cuestiones principales que se reflejan en cuatro artículos científicos independientes, que constituyen el elemento central de la misma. El principal objetivo del primer artículo es el de investigar el efecto reputación a lo largo del tiempo. Para ello, utilizamos los datos RASFF para el periodo 1998-2013. Se han implementado dos modelos de datos de recuento para estimar la distribución de las notificaciones actuales. De acuerdo con la literatura anterior, nuestras conclusiones indican que la reputación afecta a las notificaciones actuales de la UE. Además, identificamos algunos países exportadores relevantes cuya reputación es duradera. El segundo artículo analiza el comportamiento de la UE en el control de la contaminación por Aflatoxina (AF) con respecto a los frutos secos entre el periodo 1998 y 2015. Para llevar a cabo este análisis, hemos utilizado un modelo de datos de recuento, basado en consideraciones de economía política, alertas pasadas y efectos de dependencia de trayectoria. Se estima que los cambios en las políticas, incluida la armonización de las normas AF y su posterior relajación, tienen un impacto significativo en la frecuencia de los controles en las fronteras. En el tercer artículo, tratamos de evaluar los factores que influyen en la aplicación de normas alimentarias en la UE prestando especial atención a las importaciones agroalimentarias procedentes de países mediterráneos. Así, estudiamos si hay algún tratamiento especial hacia los países mediterráneos en el control de las importaciones agroalimentarias, contrastando si las notificaciones pasadas afectan las decisiones actuales sobre la aplicación de las normas alimentarias por parte de la UE. Los datos de las notificaciones RASFF durante el período 2000-2012 y los modelos de datos de recuento se utilizan para este fin. Nuestros resultados empíricos apoyan la hipótesis de que las notificaciones anteriores pueden afectar ligeramente a las notificaciones actuales. Sin embargo, este efecto parece ser menos relevante para los productos procedentes de los países mediterráneos. Por lo tanto, no podemos identificar un comportamiento pro o anti mediterráneo en la forma en que se implementan controles de seguridad alimentaria en las fronteras de la UE.El último documento se centra en la evaluación de la competitividad del sector agroalimentario tunecino antes de firmar el Acuerdo de Libre Comercio Profundo y Amplio con la UE. Concretamente, se han utilizado indicadores de las ventajas competitivas, basándose en los datos del INS para el período 2007-2012. El análisis del sector agroalimentario tunecino revela un importante potencial de exportación de algunos productos básicos agroalimentarios. Recientemente, Túnez se enfrenta a nuevos retos en la exportación de productos estratégicos subrayando la importancia de adoptar nuevas estrategias comerciales y de comercialización o prospección de nuevos mercados. Sin embargo, algunos subsectores agroalimentarios, principalmente productos de origen animal, leche y productos lácteos y cereales, siguen sin estar preparados para soportar los costos del acuerdo de libre comercio profundo y completo debido
L'efecte de les mesures no aranzelàries (MNT) sobre el comerç agroalimentari ha generat un ampli interés en la investigació i ha rebut una atenció considerable per part de la comunitat científica i dels polítics de comerç. Les Mesures Sanitàries i Fitosanitàries (MSP) , entre altres, representen un repte important per a la política comercial i la innocuïtat dels aliments. La identificació i mesurament de les implicacions econòmiques de les MNT requerixen l'ús d'un marc metodològic o empíric adequat per a derivar estimacions sòlides. A l'enfocar-se en sectors econòmics i temes no investigats prèviament, esta tesi contribuïx a la literatura prèvia sobre la determinació dels factors que afecten la implementació del MSF. La tesi estudia quatre qüestions principals que es reflectixen en quatre articles científics independents, que constituïxen l'element central de la mateixa. El principal objectiu del primer article és el d'investigar l'efecte reputació al llarg del temps. Per a això, utilitzem les dades RASFF per al període 1998-2013. S'han implementat dos models de dades de recompte per a estimar la distribució de les notificacions actuals. D'acord amb la literatura anterior, les nostres conclusions indiquen que la reputació afecta les notificacions actuals de la UE. A més, identifiquem alguns països exportadors rellevants la reputació de les quals és duradora. El segon article analitza el comportament de la UE en el control de la contaminació per Aflatoxina (AF) respecte a les fruites seques entre el període 1998 i 2015. Per a dur a terme esta anàlisi, hem utilitzat un model de dades de recompte, basat en consideracions d'economia política, alertes passades i efectes de dependència de trajectòria. S'estima que els canvis en les polítiques, inclosa l'harmonització de les normes AF i la seua posterior relaxació, tenen un impacte significatiu en la freqüència dels controls en les fronteres. En el tercer article, tractem d'avaluar els factors que influïxen en l'aplicació de normes alimentàries en la UE, prestant especial atenció a les importacions agroalimentàries procedents de països mediterranis. Així, estudiem si hi ha algun tractament especial cap als països mediterranis en el control de les importacions agroalimentàries, contrastant si les notificacions passades afecten les decisions actuals sobre l'aplicació de les normes alimentàries per part de la UE. Les dades de les notificacions RASFF durant el període 2000-2012 i els models de dades de recompte s'utilitzen per a este fi. Els nostres resultats empírics recolzen la hipòtesi que les notificacions anteriors poden afectar lleugerament les notificacions actuals. No obstant això, este efecte pareix menys rellevant per als productes procedents dels països mediterranis. Per tant, no podem identificar un comportament pro o anti mediterrani en la forma en què s'implementen controls de seguretat alimentària en les fronteres de la UE. L'últim document se centra en l'avaluació de la competitivitat del sector agroalimentari tunisenc abans de firmar l'Acord de Lliure Comerç Profund i Ampli amb la UE. Concretament, s'ha utilitzat indicadors dels avantatges competitius, basant-se en les dades de l'INS per al període 2007-2012. L'anàlisi del sector agroalimentari tunisenc revela un important potencial d'exportació d'alguns productes bàsics agroalimentaris. Recentment, Tunis s'enfronta a nous reptes en l'exportació de productes estratègics subratllant la importància d'adoptar noves estratègies comercials i de comercialització o prospecció de nous mercats. No obstant això, alguns subsectors agroalimentaris, principalment productes d'origen animal, llet i productes lactis i cereals, seguixen sense estar preparats per a suportar els costos de l'ALCD a causa de la seua baixa competitivitat. Per tant, les autoritats tunisenques podrien proposar una estratègia progres
Taghouti, I. (2017). A political economy approach to measuring EU food standard enforcement and their implications on agri-food trade [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/89095
TESIS

The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) along with other agreements was concluded in the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations in 1994. However, negotiations continued within the WTO framework and are still a work in progress on some specific issues under the GATS including the question of Emergency Safeguard Measures, which has been raised in Article X of the GATS as part of its ‘built-in agenda’. The thesis looks at the concept of the Emergency Safeguards Measures (ESMs) in the GATT/WTO and tries to develop an answer to the ‘question of ESMs’, which is deluding the negotiators and researchers for more than fifteen years. The thesis tries to analyse whether the GATT type ESMs can be transposed to GATS. It also explores that whether ESMs that are modelled on GATT are feasible under GATS, and if feasible, are these really desirable. If these are feasible and desirable then what should be their possible structure remaining within the existing GATT paradigm. The thesis walks through the provisions that already exist in the GATS to meet the circumstances perceived by the countries that are seeking specific ESMs under GATS and whether these provisions address the concerns of the demanders of the concept. The thesis not only takes into account the academic and legal literature on the subject but also and perhaps more practically, takes into account the dynamics of the negotiations, discussions and debates within the WTO system on the subject. The thesis tries to provide an in-depth analysis of the issue and goes beyond what is already available in the International Trade Law literature on the ESMs under the cross border trade in services. It seeks to answer a question that presently exists in the International Trade Law especially with reference to the law emerging out of WTO.

L'objectif de cette thèse est d'analyser les implications économiques des mesures techniques non tarifaires (MTNT) en vigueur dans les pays développés sur le commerce international de produits agroalimentaires des pays Africains. De façon plus spécifique, elle s'intéresse à trois questions principales. La première, qui est plus générale, est de savoir quel est et qu'est-ce qui détermine l'effet net de l'ensemble des mesures techniques non tarifaires en vigueur dans les pays de l'OCDE sur les exportations Africaines de produits végétaux. La deuxième question, plus spécifique, cherche à savoir quels sont les effets de la conformité aux mesures de limites maximales de résidus (LMR) de pesticides sur la production, l'offre d'exportation et la demande d'importation. Finalement, la troisième question consiste à déterminer quel est l'impact direct des rejets de produits à la frontière des pays Européens du système d'alerte rapide pour les denrées alimentaires et les aliments pour animaux (RASFF) sur les exportations Africaines de fruits et légumes comestibles. Nous traitons ces différentes questions à travers trois essais. Dans le premier essai, nous analysons de façon théorique l'effet net des MTNT sur le commerce bilatéral et proposons une approche empirique robuste pour évaluer cet effet. Ensuite, nous évaluons les effets d'entrave et d'amélioration ainsi que l'effet net des MTNT en vigueur dans les pays de l'OCDE sur les exportations africaines de produits végétaux. Nos résultats théoriques montrent que l'effet net des MTNT sur le commerce bilatéral agrégé dépend non seulement de l'élasticité de substitution et de l'élasticité du coût marginal par rapport aux MTNT, mais aussi du paramètre de forme de la distribution des coûts marginaux qui dépend de la technologie. En plus, nous constatons que pour une élasticité de substitution donnée, seules les entreprises ou les pays caractérisés par un coût marginal inférieur à un coût marginal seuil et une productivité supérieure à un niveau de productivité seuil connaîtront un effet net positif du commerce vers une destination donnée. Pour nos investigations empiriques, nous estimons une équation de gravité sectorielle en utilisant la base de données des MTNT publiée par la CNUCED et le WITS, combinée aux données commerciales transversales pour 2017 de UN COMTRADE/WITS. Les données couvrent 53 pays africains exportant 40 produits végétaux à 4 chiffres du Système harmonisé (SH) vers 35 pays membres de l'OCDE. Nos résultats empiriques montrent à la fois des effets d'entrave (diminution de 3,099%) et d'amélioration (augmentation de 2,056%) des MNT en vigueur dans les pays de l'OCDE sur les exportations africaines de produits végétaux. Ensemble, ces effets produisent un effet net négatif et significatif, ce qui indique que les MNT en vigueur dans les pays membres de l'OCDE constituent des obstacles pour les exportateurs Africains de produits végétaux. Dans le second essai, nous démêlons théoriquement et empiriquement les effets des LMR pour les pesticides sur la production, l'offre d'exportation et la demande d'importation. Nous adoptons une approche de modélisation basée sur les coûts et les bénéfices associés aux normes de sécurité sanitaire des aliments et utilisons notre cadre théorique pour évaluer les effets empiriques nets des LMR de pesticides sur la production de mangues en Afrique et le commerce avec les pays membres de l'OCDE. Théoriquement, nous montrons que les effets des LMR sur la production sont négatifs tandis que leurs effets nets sur le commerce bilatéral peuvent être positifs, nuls ou négatifs selon que l'effet de la qualité perçue par les consommateurs sur la demande d'importation est supérieur, égal ou inférieur à l'effet du coût de mise en conformité sur l'offre d'exportation. Nous utilisons des données transversales pour 12 pays africains qui ont produit et exporté des mangues conformes aux LMR vers 31 pays de l'OCDE en 2016, et nous constatons que, d'une part, les effets nets des LMR de pesticides sur la production de mangues sûres sont négatifs. D'autre part, ils sont positifs sur le commerce des mangues entre les pays africains et les pays membres de l'OCDE. Nos résultats impliquent que le renforcement ou l'imposition de LMR strictes pour les pesticides dans les pays développés peut favoriser les échanges commerciaux alors qu'ils entravent fortement la production dans les pays africains. Dans le dernier essai, nous évaluons l'effet des refus d'importation des pays Européens sur les exportations Africaines de fruits et légumes comestibles, au cours de la période 2008 à 2018. De façon plus spécifique, nous estimons l'effet moyen des rejets aux frontières des pays du réseau RASFF sur les marges extensive et intensive de commerce de fruits et légumes comestibles pour 45 pays africains. Nous utilisons les données sur les rejets aux frontières issues de la base de données en ligne du RASFF avec les données sur les exportations Africaines provenant de la base de données de WITS des Nations Unies. Nous estimons la version canonique de l'équation de gravité sectorielle d'Anderson et al. (2004) en utilisant l'estimateur du Pseudo poisson maximum de vraisemblance (PPML) de Silva et al.(2006) en combinaison avec l'approche robuste d'estimation à deux étapes avec inclusion de résidus (2SRI) de Terza et al.(2008). Nous constatons qu'une augmentation du nombre de refus d'importation par un pays du RASFF une fois dans l'année en cours entraîne une diminution du nombre de partenaires commerciaux en Europe pour les pays africains de 0,018% pour les légumes comestibles et de 0,143 % pour les fruits comestibles. En outre, nos résultats montrent qu'un refus d'importation supplémentaire diminue la valeur des exportations de légumes comestibles des pays africains de 0,045%. Cependant, nous constatons que les refus d'importation des pays du RASFF une fois dans l'année en cours entraînent une augmentation de la valeur des exportations de fruits comestibles des pays africains de 0,126%. Par ailleurs, nos résultats valident explicitement l'hypothèse d'endogénéité du nombre de refus d'importation et mettent en évidence les effets directs et les effets de contagion des rejets aux frontières. Ce dernier résultat signifie qu'une augmentation du nombre de rejets à la frontière d'un produit donné (par exemple un fruit frais) au cours d'une année précédente entraîne une augmentation du nombre de rejets à la frontière pour ce produit et les produits voisins (par exemple un légume frais) au cours de l'année suivante.
The objective of this thesis is to analysis the economic implications of technical non-tariff measures (TNTMs) in force in developed countries on the international trade of agricultural and agri-food products of African countries. More specifically, we focus on three main issues. The first more general question is: what is and what determines the net effect of the set of TNTMs in OECD countries on African exports of plant products ? The second, more specific, question is: what are the effects of compliance with maximum residue limit (MRL) for pesticide on production, export supply and import demand ? Finally, the third question is to determine: what is the direct impact of product rejections at the border of European countries of the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) on African exports of plant products ? We address these different questions through three essays. In the first essay, we theoretically analyze the net effect of technical non-tariff measures (TNTMs) on bilateral trade and suggest a robust empirical approach to evaluate this effect. We assess the impediment, enhancement and net effects of the TNTMs in force in OECD countries on African exports of plant products. Our theoretical findings highlight that the net effect of the TNTMs on aggregate bilateral trade depends not only on the elasticity of substitution and the elasticity of marginal cost with respect to the TNTMs but also the shape parameter of the distribution of marginal costs which depends on the technology. In addition, we find that for a given elasticity of substitution, only firms or countries characterized by a lower marginal cost than a cutoff marginal cost and higher productivity than a threshold productivity level will experience a positive net effect of trade to a given destination. For our empirical investigation, we estimate a sectoral gravity equation using the non-tariff measures (NTMs) database released by UNCTAD and WITS combined with cross-sectional trade data for 2017 from the UN COMTRADE/WITS database. The data cover 53 African countries exporting 40 Harmonized System (HS) 4-digit plant products to 35 OECD member countries. Our empirical results show both impediment (decrease of 3.099%) and enhancement (increase of 2.056%) effects of the TNTMs in force in OECD countries on African exports of plant products. Together, these effects yield a negative and significant net effect, which indicates that the TNTMs in force in OECD member countries are obstacles for African exporters of plant products. In the second essay, we disentangle theoretically and empirically the effects of the MRLs for pesticides on the production, export supply and import demand. We adopt a modelling approach based on the costs and benefits associated with food safety standards and use our theoretical framework to assess the empirical net effects of the MRLs for pesticides on African mango production and trade with OECD member countries. Theoretically, we show that the production effects of MRLs are negative while their net effects on bilateral trade can be positive, zero or negative depending on whether the consumers' perceived quality effect on import demand is greater than, equal to or less than the compliance cost effect on export supply through the unconditional expected standard-compliant production. We use a cross-sectional data set for 12 African countries that produced and exported MRL-compliant mangoes to 31 OECD countries in 2016, and find that, on the one hand, the net effects of MRLs on the production of safe mangoes are negative. On the other hand, they are positive on mango trade between African and OECD member countries. Our results highlight that the tightening or imposition of strict MRLs for pesticides in developed countries may be trade promoting while they severely impede production in African countries. In the last essay, we assess the effects of European countries' import refusals on African exports of edible vegetables and fruits from 2008 to 2018. We specifically estimate the average effects of the RASFF countries' border rejections on the extensive and intensive margins of African countries exports of edible vegetables and fruits. We use the border rejections data from the RASFF online database and export data on 45 African countries from the UN WITS database. We estimate the canonical version of the sectoral gravity equation of Anderson and al. (2004) using the Poisson pseudo maximum likelihood (PPML) estimator of Silva and al. (2006) in association with the robust twostage residual inclusion (2SRI) approach of Terza and al. (2008). We find that a single increase in the number of import refusals by a RASFF country in the current year leads to a decrease in the number of trade partners in Europe for African countries by 0.018 percent for edible vegetables and 0.143 percent for edible fruits. In addition, our results show that one additional import refusal decreases the export value of African countries' edible vegetables by 0.045 percent. However, we find that RASFF countries' refusal to import once in the current year leads to an increase in the export value of African countries' edible fruit by 0.126 percent. Furthermore, our results explicitly validate the hypothesis of the endogeneity of the number of import refusals and highlight both the direct and spillover effects of border rejections. The latter result means that an increase in the number of border rejections for a given product (for instance, a fresh fruit) in a given year leads to an increase in the number of border rejections for a product and its neighboring products (for instance, a fresh vegetable) in the next year.

The PhD thesis analyses the financial services regime in international economic law from the perspective of the difficult relationship between trade liberalisation and prudential measures. Financial stability plays a fundamental role for the well-being and well-functioning of the global economy, but, it is at the same time a complex sector to regulate and supervise and, especially after the 2007-08 economic crisis, States have tightened up their regulation of financial services, introducing more severe and protectionist prudential measures. However, in an increasingly interconnected global economy, the harmonization of prudential regulation at the international level is an essential step to guarantee integrity, fairness and stability of financial markets and trade. The research analyses the tools at disposition to achieve this aim, the related problematic issues and the perspectives and possible solutions for the future, starting from the World Trade Organization (WTO) legal framework and its General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), devoted to discipline trade in services among the WTO Members. Then, the research moves to a second legal instrument, the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), which has witnessed a remarkable spread in the last decades. Finally, the research addresses the international standards, developed by supranational entities and implemented by an increasing number of States, as they offer rules and guidelines adequate to update the international financial scenario. Nevertheless, the international standards alone cannot be the solution because, first, they are not mandatory, as governments decide voluntarily to apply them and, second, their decision-making process do not respect the requirements of transparency and representative membership. In light of this analysis, the thesis aims at providing an answer to its research question: how to give more certainty to States and economic operators in the planning of the domestic disciplines and business activities in order to provide a sound and stable international financial system.

Atualmente, há um debate acerca dos efeitos da aplicação de medidas antidumping entre as partes de um acordo regional de comércio. Discute-se que o emprego de tais instrumentos pode gerar um óbice ao livre comércio e ao avanço da integração econômica negociados em tais acordos. As regras do sistema multilateral de comércio determinam que direitos antidumping podem ser aplicados quando comprovada a existência de dumping, dano à indústria nacional e a relação causal entre estes. Entretanto, mesmo que haja regras sobre a condução de uma investigação antidumping e a aplicação da medida, ainda há muito espaço para a discricionariedade das autoridades nacionais investigadoras. Isso enseja a preocupação de que a aplicação desse instrumento pode conduzir a uma ineficácia dos objetivos de liberalização comercial negociados nos acordos regionais de comércio, além de neutralizar as concessões tarifárias feitas no âmbito desses acordos, em prol do protecionismo de uma indústria doméstica, muitas vezes, defasada e inapta à concorrência internacional. A presente dissertação pretende demonstrar que, à medida que o antidumping representa um potencial impacto negativo aos ideais dos acordos regionais de comércio, sua aplicação é antagônica com os objetivos desses acordos, inclusive no caso do MERCOSUL. Assim, as regras antidumping no âmbito do MERCOSUL deveriam ser repensadas, uma vez que a não aplicação de direitos antidumping no comércio intrarregional permitiria o avanço da integração econômica na região e representaria mais um passo rumo à consolidação da união aduaneira.
Currently, there is a debate about the effects of antidumping measures among members of regional trade agreements. It is argued that the use of such instrument can represent an obstacle to free trade and the deepening of economic integration. The rules of the multilateral trading system determines that antidumping duties may be applied when verified the existence of dumping, injury to the domestic industry of the importing country and causal relationship between them. However, even though there are rules governing the conduction of an antidumping investigation and the application of antidumping measures, there is still much room for discretion of investigating authorities. This gives rise to concern that the use of antidumping may lead to ineffectiveness of the goals of trade liberalization and neutralization of tariff concessions made under such agreements, in order to protect a domestic industry, usually outdated and unprepared to international competition. This thesis intends to demonstrate that, as antidumping represents a potential negative impact to the achievements of regional trade agreements, its application among members of a RTA is opposed to the goals of such agreements, including in the case of MERCOSUR. Thus, antidumping rules within MERCOSUR should be reconsidered, since the elimination of antidumping duties on intraregional trade would allow the deepening of the regional economic integration and represent a step towards the consolidation of the customs union.

In recent years, social media websites have been used by offenders to advertise illegally traded medicines (ITMs) directly to customers on a large scale. Recently, new situational crime prevention (SCP) measures aimed at identifying, blocking and removing contents linked to ITMs have been implemented by most of the social media platforms. This seems to be a promising path to follow in the fight against this criminal market: however, their ability in reaching their goal is still unknown. The aim of this dissertation is to evaluate the impact of those measures on the illegal online trade of medicines in social media websites. In more detail, systematic keyword searches were performed on the three major social media (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram) in order to identify contents linked to ITMs: results were then analysed and compared to the situation existing before the implementation of the measures with reference to six qualitative indicators. These indicators are a) extent of the social media usage in the illegal online trade of medicines, b) ease of finding ITMs, c) visibility over time of ITMs-related contents, d) language of posts concerning ITMs, and e) types of posts concerning ITMs. Research results have provided evidence supporting the hypothesis of the limited impact of the measures, since they are spotting, blocking and removing only some illegal contents. At the same time, the features of the advertisements for ITMs on social networking websites are only partially different if compared to those existing before the implementation of the SCP interventions. Seemingly this is not linked to a lack of effectiveness tout court, but to an asymmetrical implementation of the measures. For this reason, a possible, legally binding, obligation for social media platforms to implement them more widely is suggested.

Includes bibliographical references.
The preamble of the Agreement establishing the WTO, the so called Marrakesh Agreement, points out the general significance of environmental protection and sustainable development. The WTO law contains several provisions concerning the environment. However, it is not yet finally clarified in how far WTO Members can adopt measures to protect the environment where those measures have trade restricting effects. This question is particularly problematic where a Member implements such a measure unilaterally and the measure affects other countries’ policies. The question at stake is to what extent Member States can unilaterally adopt measures to protect the environment where those measures have extraterritorial effect, i.e. where those measures require other states to change their policies in order to gain access to the importing country’s market. The GATT/WTO adjudicating body had to deal with two disputes addressing this issue, namely the Tuna-Dolphin dispute5 and the Shrimp-Turtle case. These two disputes are of outstanding importance for the issue of unilateral measures with extraterritorial effect to protect the environment. Both disputes dealt with the question whether import embargoes, that were inconsistent with Article XI of the GATT for they imposed quantitative import restrictions, could be justified under Article XX (g) of the GATT as measures to conserve exhaustible natural resources. The two decisions interpreted Article XX of the GATT, particularly paragraph g of that provision, differently. The question whether countries can unilaterally adopt measures to protect the environment where those measures have extraterritorial effect must be analysed against the backdrop of both WTO jurisprudence and general principles of international law.

The objective of this study is to restrict the emission of greenhouse gasses by investigating if this objective would be reached by the implementation of a tax. Global warming is caused by the emission of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. In order to restrict global warming it is necessary for individuals and entities to act in a more environmentally friendly manner and to emit less greenhouse gasses. A further objective of this study is to investigate various measures that can be used as an incentive to restrict the emission of greenhouse gasses. This study found that the main emitters of greenhouse gasses are power stations, industries and the transport sector. This study will therefore focus on the reduction of greenhouse gasses in these areas. The way to identify methods used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, is to investigate the techniques that first world countries use to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to judge the level of success they achieved and to compare their methods to the definition of a “good tax”. It was found that “cap-and-trade” is a better model than carbon tax for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by power stations and industries. It was also found that a combination between a tax on fuel and a tax calculated on greenhouse gas emissions per kilometre for each individual vehicle will result in the greatest reduction in the emission of greenhouse gasses produced by the transportation sector. AFRIKAANS : Die doelwit van hierdie studie is om die vrystelling van groenhuis uitlaatgasse te beperk deur ondersoek in te stel of die doelwit bereik kan word deur die implementering van 'n belasting. Globale aardverwarming word veroorsaak deur 'n oormaat vrystelling van groenhuisgasse in die atmosfeer. Om globale aardverwarming te beperk, sal individue, sowel as entiteite, meer omgewingsvriendelik moet optree deur minder groenhuisgasse vry te stel. 'n Verdere doelwit van hierdie studie is om verskeie metodes, insluitende belasting, te ondersoek waardeur die vrystelling van groenhuisgasse verminder kan word. In die studie is vasgestel dat kragstasies, industrieë en vervoerstelsels die hoofvrystellers van groenhuisgasse is. Die fokus van die studie is dus gerig op die vermindering van groenhuisgasvrystelling spesifiek in hierdie areas. Die wyse om metodes, wat gebruik word om groenhuisgasvrystellings te verminder, te identifiseer, is om die tegnieke wat in eerste wêreldlande gebruik word te ondersoek, om die vlak van sukses wat daarmee bereik word, te bepaal en om daardie metodes teen die definisie van 'n “goeie belasting” te toets. Daar is gevind dat “uitlaatgas handel” 'n beter model is as koolstofdioksiedbelasting ten einde 'n vermindering van groenhuisgasvrystellings deur kragstasies en industrieë te bewerkstellig. Daar is ook gevind dat ‘n kombinasie van ‘n belasting op brandstof en ‘n belasting bereken op groenhuisgasvrystellings per kilometer van elke individuele voertuig die grootste vermindering in groenhuisgasvrystellings in die vervoerstelsel sal meebring. Copyright
Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2010.
Taxation
unrestricted

Thesis (MTech (Quality (Engineering)))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017.
Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) is a segment of quality assurance which guarantees that food products produced are uniform and controlled to the appropriate quality standards for their required use and as expected by the marketing authority. A survey was carried out to assess the awareness and implementation level of GMP guidelines amongst manufacturers in the Western Cape, South Africa. Based on a literature review on GMP in the food manufacturing establishments a research problem was identified forming the crux of the research which reads as follows: “the lack of enforcement of approved standards within the food manufacturing establishments in the Western Cape Province, South Africa may result in the food product quality being questioned by consumers”. The objective of this study was to assess the awareness and implementation of GMP among food manufacturing establishments in the Western Cape. The literature was reviewed to discover what is currently known concerning GMP in the food manufacturing industries. Fresh food produce manufacturing establishments in the Western Cape Province South Africa were targeted for this study, with 52 responding to the questionnaires. Data was collected by means of self-administered structured questionnaires and individual face-to-face interviews with six of the establishments that participated in the questionnaires. Data for the questionnaires was analysed by means Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 19 software programme in order to generate descriptive statistical results and to determine potential areas for improvement in the establishments surveyed. Data for individual face-to-face interview was recorded by transcribing and analysed by inductive reasoning. In particular, Cronbach’s alpha was utilized to test the reliability of the key items of GMP.

International trade encourages innovation, boosts development, reduces poverty, creates new markets, enhances competitiveness, improves product quality, and expands the consumer choice set. This dissertation is composed of three papers examining barriers to agricultural trade. The first two papers examine the impact of tariff and non-tariff barriers to agricultural trade while the third paper investigates China's domestic agricultural and international trade policies in order to promote U.S. market access in China. The first paper investigates how trade liberalization expands the range of products available for import and consumption. A multinomial logit framework of unordered export categories is developed: no trade margin, disappearing margin, intensive margin, and extensive margin. The findings of this paper suggest exporters gain from tariff reductions because they can establish new product relationships with the U.S. and enhance their U.S., and potentially global, supply chains. In addition, if consumers value variety in consumption, the extensive product margin results can be viewed as a positive welfare gain for U.S. agri-food consumers. The second paper focuses on non-tariff measures (NTM), which have significant implications for agricultural trade and food marketing. This paper focuses on maximum residue limits (MRLs) for pesticides and their trade restricting nature on U.S. fresh fruit and vegetable trade under the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Specifically, this research develops a bilateral index to measure the stringency of destination market tolerances for pesticide residues relative to those faced in the United States. Using a Heckman two-step model, the results shed considerable light on existing regulatory heterogeneity, which has important implications for policy to focus on increasing compatibility of NTMs across trading nations. The third paper examines China's evolving agricultural and trade policies and discusses the potential impact on U.S. exports to China. China's agricultural imports, and policies affecting those agricultural products, have important implications for the U.S. as the leading export supplier to the Chinese market. China's price support programs, aimed at improving food security and Chinese farmers' incomes, increased domestic prices. This created a gap between domestic and international prices that led to excessive Chinese stockpiles. In response, China implemented respective target prices for cotton and soybeans, eliminated the price support for corn, and continues to introduce new policies.
Ph. D.