Posts tagged…Agriculture
Elaborating the Ag. travesty
Thu, Jan 14 2010It is difficult to believe that the complex, weak, confusing, rent-preserving, ponderous white-elephant being proposed for an agreement on agriculture in the WTO Doha negotiations could be more bloated or further compromised…but that's exactly what seems to be happening.
According to a report* from ITCSD, developing countries and the EU want to further slow the pace of change where opening…
Read more…Will the G-20 save Doha?
Sun, Sep 27 2009Probably not. The discount on this, the lastest of their promises, is deservedly steep according to the Global Trade Alert website.
It's not a problem of mendacity or lack of 'political courage'. There is simply no consensus on the liberalizing mandate of Doha among this group; we've tested that proposition to exhaustion in the past eight years. The G20 is effectively the same group that has been…
Agriculture in the AUSFTA
Wed, Aug 26 2009
The first few slides are charts of current data showing a surprisingly poor performance of Australian exports to the USA in the first five years of the implementation period of the free-trade area. The…
Modeling a Doha agreement on agriculture
Tue, Jul 07 2009
To conclude my series of posts on modeling a critical mass agreement on agriculture, I would like to show you how I set up UNCTAD's Agricultural Trade Policy Simulation Model (ATPSM) to project the economic impacts of an agreement to liberalize agricultural trade based on WTO's December, 2008, draft 'modalities'. In my previous post, I compared the results of this simulation with the results of…
Critical mass agreement vs the Doha Round
Thu, Jul 02 2009
We'll cut to the chase, shall we, in this fourth of my posts on modeling the impact of a 'critical mass' agreement in agriculture? Click on the tags at the left-side or at the bottom of this article to find the earlier posts.
A 'critical mass' agreement among 38 countries that account for 80 percent of world trade in the 30 top-traded agricultural products (all of them food) to eliminate import…
Let’s hope this means more clarity
Fri, Jun 26 2009Trade ministers in Paris for the June OECD meetings are looking for Lamy's 'second track' to a Doha deal.
"U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk called for a new approach to the Doha talks, involving direct negotiations with key trading partners as the traditional multilateral format was not working…'We think getting more clarity around that ['exactly what the U.S. would gain'] may be the key to…
Opening food markets in a CM agreement
Wed, Jun 24 2009
The immediate net global gains from a 'Critical Mass' (CM) trade agreement to open markets for some 30 products in 38 of the world's largest markets would be about $10 billion. World trade in these products would expand by a third with most of the export gains won by developing countries.
This is the third post in a series of five intended to share with you the results of some simulations of an…
Modeling ‘critical mass’ trade agreements
Mon, Jun 15 2009
In the past couple of weeks, I've been modeling the economic impacts of an alternative way to open up world agricultural markets using 'critical mass' trade agreements.
I thought I would share some of the results of the modeling with you, here on my website, over the next couple of weeks.
The simulations run inside the trade model suggest that there would be huge wins from adopting a new, more…
Two tracks out of the Doha wasteland?
Thu, May 28 2009Pascal Lamy wants to stir up more action in the WTO's Doha negotiations —at least its appearance—by opening up a 'second front' for the exchanges. One group will battle on to refine the technical rules and one will start a 'show and tell' exploration of the implementation of the rules.
"My own sense is that there is scope to work on these two areas along two simultaneous tracks. One would see…
U.S. breaks G-20 promise on trade
Sun, May 24 2009
Just to remind you of what they said in April:
"We reaffirm the commitment made in Washington not to raise new barriers to investment or to trade in goods and services, including within existing WTO limits, not to impose new trade restrictions, and not to create new subsidies to exports." G-20 Communiqué emphasis added
By any measure the re-introduction of an export subsidy for the coddled U.S.…
What if WTO forgot about the rules?
Thu, May 14 2009If you can't agree on what to do, then don't agree. Just, um… do it™.
This—believe it or not— is the latest idea from the bored squad of WTO delegates who find themselves with nothing much to negotiate while trade is in an unprecedented slump and the Doha Round lies on a slab in the cool room.
Their thinking—which they tested with new US Trade Representative Ron Kirk during his recent visit to…
Peru jumps the China FTA queue
Wed, Apr 29 2009This news makes the delay in agreement between Australia and China on an FTA look even more peculiar.
" China and Peru on Tuesday signed a free trade agreement, state media here said, as Beijing continues to seek new markets and reserves of raw materials to fuel its economy… China has become mineral-rich Peru's second largest trading partner after the United States. Peru is a major producer of…