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N° 2008-18 |
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| September 2008 |
| Choosing Sensitive Agricultural Products
in Trade Negotiations |
Sébastien Jean
David
Laborde
Will Martin |
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| The formula approach used in many trade negotiations involves large formula cuts in high
tariffs, with flexibilities that allow smaller cuts for selected products. Difficulties in
evaluating the effects of these exceptions can create major problems. We use a politicaleconomy
welfare function and detailed data on the current WTO agricultural negotiations
to assess the implications of this approach for welfare and for market access. We find that
some previous rules of thumb greatly underestimate the impacts of such exceptions. Indeed,
treating even a small number of tariff lines as sensitive and subjecting them to reduced cuts
has a sharply adverse impact on welfare, and a smaller but still negative impact on market access. |
Non-technical summary |
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Résumé
non-technique
en français |
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| Full text |
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| Agricultural trade; trade negotiations; market access; sensitive
products; WTO |
Keywords |
| F13; P16; Q17 |
JEL classification |
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