IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/wotrrv/v2y2003i01p5-31_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Special safeguards for developing country agriculture: a proposal for WTO negotiations

Author

Listed:
  • VALDÉS, ALBERTO
  • FOSTER, WILLIAM

Abstract

Trade liberalization, particularly QR elimination, enhances border-to-domestic price transmission. A political obstacle to further liberalization (and to exposure to greater price transmission) in developing countries is fear of extended ‘low price’ periods in import-competing sectors. World commodity prices show shock persistence and asymmetry, with short-duration spikes and longer-duration troughs. Developing countries are unlikely to adopt fiscally burdensome domestic programs to compensate for persistent low-price episodes, making border measures attractive. WTO Special Safeguards could address low price problems, but present rules exclude their use by most developing countries. A possible modification of the Special Safeguard Clause could encourage reduction of overall protection. World price characteristics and the implications of low price periods for import-competing farmers are reviewed. To manage low-price risk under WTO commitments a restricted price floor policy could be implemented through a Special Safeguard Mechanism. An example illustrates the levels, frequency and duration of such a price-floor-based surcharge.

Suggested Citation

  • Valdã‰S, Alberto & Foster, William, 2003. "Special safeguards for developing country agriculture: a proposal for WTO negotiations," World Trade Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(1), pages 5-31, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:wotrrv:v:2:y:2003:i:01:p:5-31_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1474745603001320/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jason H. Grant & Karl D. Meilke, 2006. "The World Trade Organization Special Safeguard Mechanism: A Case Study of Wheat," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 28(1), pages 24-47.
    2. Grant, Jason H. & Meilke, Karl D., 2009. "Triggers, Remedies, and Tariff Cuts: Assessing the Impact of a Special Safeguard Mechanism for Developing Countries," Estey Centre Journal of International Law and Trade Policy, Estey Centre for Law and Economics in International Trade, vol. 10(1), pages 1-24, May.
    3. Xu, Zhaoyuan & Li, Shantong, 2008. "The Impact of Inter-regional Labor Migration on Economic Growth and Regional Disparity," Conference papers 331675, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    4. Valdés, Alberto & Foster, William, 2005. "The New SSM: A Price Floor Mechanism for Developing Countries," WTO Doha Round 320135, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD).
    5. Ilhem Baghdadli & Hela Cheikhrouhou & Gael Raballand, 2007. "Strategies for Cotton in West and Central Africa : Enhancing Competitiveness in the "Cotton 4"," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6784, December.
    6. de la Torre, Augusto & Didier, Tatiana & Pinat, Magali, 2014. "Can Latin America tap the globalization upside ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6837, The World Bank.
    7. David Tschirley & Colin Poulton & Patrick Labaste, 2009. "Organization and Performance of Cotton Sectors in Africa : Learning from Reform Experience," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2604, December.
    8. Grant, Jason H. & Meilke, Karl D., 2005. "The WTO Special Safeguard Mechanism: A Case Study of Wheat," Working Papers 24158, Canadian Agricultural Trade Policy Research Network.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:wotrrv:v:2:y:2003:i:01:p:5-31_00. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/wtr .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.