Download or read book Has Agricultural Trade Liberalization Improved Welfare in the Least Developed Countries Yes written by Merlinda Ingco and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most of the gains from multilateral liberalization come from the countries' own liberalization efforts. Least-developed countries that failed to liberalize their trade policy lost the opportunity for gains that the Uruguay Round made possible.Ingco evaluates the progress in agricultural liberalization - and the welfare effects for least-developed and net food-importing countries - as a result of agricultural price shocks resulting from the Uruguay Round. She finds that:- The changes in welfare are significantly affected by the structure of trade and distortions in the domestic economy.- Although many economies are hurt by increases in world prices, losses in terms of trade are small relative to total GDP. Only in a few countries does the estimated welfare change constitute more than 1 percent of GDP. - In several countries, the distortion effects are significantly larger than the terms-of-trade effects. In some cases, the distortion effects work in opposition to the terms-of-trade effects and are large enough to reverse the sign of the net welfare change.In short, removing policy distortions could convert the small loss in terms of trade to potential gains. But many least-developed, net food-importing countries did not use the Round to support domestic efforts at trade reform. As most studies show, most gains from multilateral liberalization come from the countries' own liberalization efforts, so countries that failed to liberalize their trade policy lost the opportunity for gains.This paper - a product of the International Trade Division, International Economics Department - is part of a larger effort in the department to evaluate the effects of trade liberalization with special focus on least-developed and net-food importing developing countries.

Download or read book Has Agricultural Trade Liberalization Improved Welfare in the Least developed Countries written by Merlinda D. Ingco and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1997 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most of the gains from multilateral liberalization come from the countries' own liberalization efforts. Least-developed countries that failed to liberalize their trade policy lost the opportunity for gains that the Uruguay Round made possible. Ingco evaluates the progress in agricultural liberalization - and the welfare effects for least-developed and net food-importing countries - as a result of agricultural price shocks resulting from the Uruguay Round. She finds that: * The changes in welfare are significantly affected by the structure of trade and distortions in the domestic economy. * Although many economies are hurt by increases in world prices, losses in terms of trade are small relative to total GDP. Only in a few countries does the estimated welfare change constitute more than 1 percent of GDP. * In several countries, the distortion effects are significantly larger than the terms-of-trade effects. In some cases, the distortion effects work in opposition to the terms-of-trade effects and are large enough to reverse the sign of the net welfare change. In short, removing policy distortions could convert the small loss in terms of trade to potential gains. But many least-developed, net food-importing countries did not use the Round to support domestic efforts at trade reform. As most studies show, most gains from multilateral liberalization come from the countries' own liberalization efforts, so countries that failed to liberalize their trade policy lost the opportunity for gains. This paper - a product of the International Trade Division, International Economics Department - is part of a larger effort in the department to evaluate the effects of trade liberalization with special focus on least-developed and net-food importing developing countries.

Download or read book Agricultural Trade Liberalization and the Least Developed Countries written by Niek Koning and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-05-07 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Developing countries as a group stand to gain very substantially from trade reform in agricultural commodities. Agricultural Trade Liberalization and the Least Developed Countries is the first book to address important questions relating to this subject. The authors are world renowned experts on international trade and development and they address a very important and timely issue.

Download or read book Implications of Agricultural Trade Liberalization for the Developing Countries written by Antonio Salazar Pessôa Brandão and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1993 with total page 45 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Global trade liberalization-- reducing both negative and positive protection in line with the Dunkel proposal-- would gain developing countries an estimated $60 billion a year.

Download or read book Reforming Agricultural Trade for Developing Countries written by Alex F. McCalla and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2006-11-09 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the ongoing Doha Development Round of World Trade Organization negotiations, developing countries have had much greater leverage, due at least in part to their large and growing share of world trade. But will the increased influence of developing countries translate into a final agreement that is truly more development-friendly? What would be key ingredients in such a final outcome of the negotiations, and what would the developing countries really get out of it. This two volume set seeks to answer these questions. This volume (Volume 2) addresses the question of how a development-friendly outcome to the talks would affect developing countries by quantifying the impact of multilateral trade reform. It presents several different approaches to modeling the effects of the outcome of negotiations, and then investigates why these (and other) modeling efforts produce such divergent results. Volume 1 is issues-oriented. It takes up some key questions in the negotiations, setting the stage with a historical overview of the Doha Development Agenda to help identify issues of most significance to developing countries, and then explores select issues in greater depth. Aimed at policymakers and stakeholders, this two-volume effort puts into the public domain important analytical work that will improve the chance for a pro-development outcomes of the Doha round negotiations.

Download or read book Towards Free Trade in Agriculture written by Kirit S. Parikh and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-29 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Agriculture seems to be a difficult sector to manage for most governments. Developing countries face tough dilemmas in deciding on appropriate price poli eies to stimulate food production and maintain stable, preferably low, prices for poor consumers. Governments in developed countries face similar difficult deci sions. They are called upon to give income guarantees to farmers whose incomes are unstable and relatively low when compared to those in the nonagricultural sector. These guarantees often lead to ever-increasing budgetary outlays and unwanted agricultural surpluses. High prices make new investments and the application of new technologies more attractive than world prices warrant, and a process is set in motion where technological innovation attains amomenturn of its own, in turn requiring price policies that maintain their rates of return. Surpluses are disposed of with subsidies in domestic markets or in the international market. Price competition reduces the market share of other exporters, who may be efficient producers, unless they are willing to engage in subsidy competition. This lowers export earnings and farm incomes or depletes the public resources of developing countries that export competing products. Retaliatory measures have led to frictions and further distortions of world prices. Every so orten the major agricultural exporters - the USA, the EC, Aus tralia, or Canada - accuse one another of unfair intervention. Though they have agreed to discuss agricultural trade liberalization under GATT negotiations, if anything, the expenditure on farm support has continued to increase in both the EC and the USA.

Download or read book Trade Liberalization and Poverty in the Middle East and North Africa written by Nicholas Minot and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2009 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Agricultural trade liberalization has been resisted by many developing-country policymakers, including those in the Middle East and North Africa, for fear it could hurt domestic farmers and exacerbate poverty. The authors of Trade Liberalization and Poverty in the Middle East and North Africa argue, however, that this concern about liberalization might be misplaced. Drawing on case studies from Egypt, Morocco, Syria, and Tunisia, the study uses household survey data and computable general equilibrium models to simulate the effects of various liberalization scenarios on different types of households in these countries, especially poor households. The results indicate that agricultural trade barriers are not an effective means of protecting the poor and that the benefits from many forms of agricultural trade liberalization to the region's consumers outweigh the costs to producers. If complemented with other domestic programs-including agricultural research and extension, information services, disease control, and social safety nets-the reforms have the potential to reduce poverty in these nations. The study findings are a valuable resource for policymakers and development specialists evaluating the role trade liberalization can play in economic development and poverty reduction.

Download or read book An Integrated Approach to Agricultural Trade and Development Issues written by Robert Scollay and published by United Nations, Conference on Trade and Development. This book was released on 2001 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Computable general equilibrium (CGE) analysis has been widely used to study the economic effects of trade liberalisation initiatives. The paper reports on the possibility of extending the use of this methodology to explore the link between trade and development. It focuses on the impact of trade liberalisation measures on income distribution. The paper reviews studies of agricultural trade liberalisation within the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) region, but it is suggested that the approach may have a wider application.

Download or read book Agriculture and Non agricultural Liberalization in the Millennium Round written by and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Agricultural Trade Liberalization written by Ian Goldin and published by Paris, France : Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development ; Washington, DC : World Bank. This book was released on 1990 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Based on an international symposium held in Paris from 5th to 6th October 1989 ... jointly organised by the World Bank and the OECD Development Centre ...".

Download or read book The Effects of International Trade Liberalization on Food Security and Competitiveness in the Agricultural Sector of Botswana written by Howard Kgalemang Sigwele and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Access to adequate and nutritionally balanced food to achieve a productive and healthy life for all individuals, on a daily basis, has been an elusive challenge in several parts of the world. In many developing countries such as Botswana, increasing per capita food consumption has been hampered by poverty as well as poor access to marketable skills and employment opportunities. Experience and studies elsewhere indicate that international trade liberalization based on comparative cost advantage in the goods sectors, can greatly improve per capita food consumption through improved export market access and reduction in tariffs. The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of international trade liberalization on food security/household welfare and the competitiveness of the agricultural sector in Botswana. In undertaking this study basically two hypotheses were made. Firstly, it is hypothesized that trade liberalization within SACU through the reduction of agricultural tariffs on food commodities can improve per capita consumption by reducing domestic food prices. Currently, products like maize grain, beef, dairy and wheat grain attract an import duty which partly increases their domestic prices within SACU. Poor households in Botswana, in particular, spend a disproportionate share of their disposable income on food most of which is imported. Secondly, this study also hypothesizes that improved market access of agricultural exports for Botswana based on WTO rules could generate additional foreign earnings that could be used to import more food. Globally, agricultural trade is characterized by distortions that restrict free commerce based on comparative advantage. Direct producer price and input subsidies together with export subsidies to farmers especially in major trade players like the EU, USA and Japan constitute barriers to trade and disadvantage developing countries like Botswana which have comparative advantage in several farm commodities. Subsidies by major industrialized countries create an artificial comparative advantage for their farmers as without direct farmer assistance, it is doubtful if some of them could invest in agriculture! Secondary data on international trade and social accounting matrix (SAM) were used in this study. Trade data were used to conduct policy simulations in order to determine the effects of trade liberalization on food security and competitiveness of the agricultural sector in Botswana. SAM data for 1993/94 were modified and used to generate income and price multipliers to undertake policy simulations. Data from SAM captures the income and demand linkages in the economy. Using partial equilibrium and economy-wide approach (SAM multiplier analysis), this study shows that Botswana can improve its household welfare or per capita food consumption through an increase in export earnings which in turn could be used to import more food at competitive prices. Except for meat products especially beef, Botswana is a net-importer of most food items. Based on a partial equilibrium agricultural trade policy model, this study found that the country's agricultural sector enjoys global comparative advantage in beef exports if there was global trade liberalization. The model advocates for the reduction of direct producer price, input and export subsidies in the agricultural sector by WTO members. Beef earnings including those from other goods like textiles and minerals are used to purchase imported food to increase domestic supply. Through a SAM income multiplier analysis, policy simulations on improved export market access for beef and textiles indicated that households, factors and activities gained from global trade liberalization. However, poor households without assets or factors such as capital and skills marginally benefited from improved export market access. This finding also indicates the potential negative income distributional effects which require policy support to benefit poor households during trade liberalization. Beef and textiles exports were chosen when undertaking policy simulations based on improved market access. With a SAM price multiplier analysis, policy simulations based on SACU tariff reduction on maize grain, beef, powdered milk and wheat grain was made. Applied tariffs were used for policy simulations. A reduction in tariffs not only improves household welfare, factors and activities also benefit through lower domestic food costs/prices. This study found that SACU tariff reduction indeed contributed to welfare improvements among households in Botswana as their cost of living declined. Poor households, in particular, benefited most from tariff reduction in imported food commodities. Factors including low-wage workers also gained from a reduction of import duties on selected food commodities. However, government loses tariff revenue when import duties are cut while producers of exports enjoying preferential markets such as the beef producers in Botswana lose when trade-distorting agricultural subsides are removed/reduced. Like government, consumers of imported food items are, in short term, adversely affected by an increase in food prices following the reduction of trade-distorting agricultural subsidies (producer price, input and export subsidies). The results of the SAM price multiplier analysis also indicated limited price/cost transmission in the economy following tariff reduction. Limited price transmission or circular flow of cost reduction in the economy imply weak competition in the market, poor information dissemination, institutional rigidities, etc hence the need for an effective competition policy and law. An effective competition policy and authority minimizes unfair trading practices and provides consumers and the economy with choice and possibly maximum net-value for money. In addition to improving welfare and reducing cost of living, etc, this study also found that when policy simulations/shocks were made, income and demand linkages in the economy were identified. In some simulations the linkages demonstrated a strong circular flow of income/price transmission while in others the multiplier effects were weak indicating limited economic integration/competition, a policy challenge that requires efforts for sustained diversification. Based on the results from SAM multiplier analysis, this study has provided Botswana with useful information to design policies that enhance economic integration and diversification. To maximize her benefits from international trade liberalization, Botswana also needs to implement complementary policies to address supply-side constraints and improve infrastructure, competition, information technology, etc. Safeguard mechanisms are still necessary to protect the agricultural sector and the economy in Botswana from unfair trade practices including market failure.

Download or read book The Role of Trade in Ending Poverty written by World Bank Group and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Trade will have an important role at the global level in generating the growth necessary for reducing extreme poverty to 3 percent and boosting prosperity for the poorest 40 percent by 2030. To identify the most important challenges that exist in maximizing the positive impact of trade on poverty, we need to understand who the poor are, where they are, and what economic activities they undertake. To this end, the study highlights particularly relevant dimensions of poverty: rural poverty in remote areas, informality, fragile and conflict situations, and women. For each of these issues, this study considers the main traderelated barriers and challenges, along with policy responses to address them. It shows the importance of the multilateral trading system and of the Doha Round, as well as the important role of the WBG and WTO in promoting coherence and implementing trade policies in a way that delivers the greatest possible benefits for the poor.

Download or read book Globalization Trade and Poverty in Ghana written by Charles Ackah and published by IDRC. This book was released on 2012 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Citing a paucity of empirical evidence on the poverty and distributional impacts of trade policy reform in Ghana as the main motivation for this volume, the editors (both of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research at the U. of Ghana) present eleven papers that combine theory and econometric analysis in an effort to assess linkages between globalization, trade, and poverty (including gendered aspects). Specific topics examined include manufacturing employment and wage effects of trade liberalization; the influence of education on trade liberalization impacts on household welfare; trade liberalization and manufacturing firm productivity; the impact of elimination of trade taxes on poverty and income distribution; food prices, tax reforms, and consumer welfare under trade liberalization; impacts on tariff revenues; and impacts on cash cropping, gender, and household welfare; Distributed in the US by Stylus. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

Download or read book Global Trade and Poor Nations written by Marcelo Olarreaga and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2007-11-01 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Brookings Institution Press and Yale Center for the Study of Globalization and Sciences-Po, Paris publication This thoughtful volume assesses the likely impact of reformed trade policies on the poorest of the poor—those on the bottom economic rungs in developing nations. The focus on a spectrum of poor nations across different regions provides some helpful and hopeful guidelines regarding the likely impacts of a global trade reform, agreed upon under the auspices of the World Trade Organization, as well as the impact of such reforms on economic development. In order to facilitate lesson-drawing across different regions, each country study utilizes a similar methodology. They combine information on trade policy at the product level with income and consumption data at the household level, thus capturing effects both on the macro level and in individual households where development policies ideally should improve day-to-day life. This uniformity of research approach across the country studies allows for a deeper and more robust comparison of results.

Download or read book Agriculture and Development written by Gudrun Kochendörfer-Lucius and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book highlights proceedings from the Berlin 2008: Agriculture and Development conference held in preparation for the World Development Report 2008.

Download or read book Who Benefited from Trade Liberalization in Mexico Measuring the Effects on Household Welfare written by Alessandro Nicita and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 57 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study performs an ex-post analysis of the effects of the trade liberalization in Mexico between 1989 and 2000, taking into account regional differences in the Mexican economy. The effects of trade liberalization are first translated into changes in regional prices and wages. Those estimates are plugged into a farm-household model to estimate the effect on households' welfare.The findings suggest that trade liberalization has affected domestic prices and labor income differently both across income groups and geographically across the country, hence producing diverse outcomes on different households. Regarding prices, the results indicate that trade liberalization has lowered relative prices of most non-animal agricultural products and, while reducing the cost of consumption, has reduced households' agricultural income, widening the income gap between urban and rural areas. The findings also show that trade liberalization has had diverse effects on wage rates. Skilled workers, for which trade liberalization has produced an increase in wages, have benefited relative to unskilled workers. Wages of unskilled workers have in many regions decreased as a result of trade liberalization. Similar differences are found in the geographic distribution of the benefits of trade liberalization, with the states closest to the U.S. border gaining threefold more relative to the least developed states in the south. Therefore trade liberalization, although beneficial, has contributed to an increase in inequality between the south and the north of the country, urban and rural areas, and skilled and unskilled labor.From a poverty perspective, the trade liberalization that occurred between 1989 and 2000 has had the direct effect of reducing poverty by about 3 percent, therefore lifting approximately 3 million individuals out of poverty.This paper - a product of Trade, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to study the linkages between trade and poverty.

Download or read book Global Economic Prospects 2004 written by World Bank and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2003 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the 14th edition of this annual publication which analyses the global and national dimensions of the investment climate for developing countries, in terms of the policy and institutional environment. It considers the key multilateral trade issues and suggests policy options to help raise living standards in developing countries and reduce global poverty. Topics discussed include: the short, medium and long term global economic outlook, including driving forces, commodity prices and capital flows; exports from developing countries, trade barriers and policies to reduce inequities in the world trading system; trade in agriculture including possible changes in subsidies and the potential for liberalisation measures; the temporary movement of labour (within the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)); trade facilitation in the light of post-September 11 security concerns; the role of trade preferences, exemptions from WTO rules and technical assistance to implement WTO trade regulations.