No Way to Meet Commitments for Norway’s Meat Imports: An Assessment of WTO Disciplines on Market Access in Agriculture

WTO trade disciplines and commitments on market access (MA) are assessed for their ability to foster agricultural liberalization and policy reform in four Norwegian meat markets (beef, pork, lamb/sheep and chicken). The analysis addresses three issues: (1) the role that non-trade barriers played relative to the tariff regime in the overall MA of meats; (2) the changes in the composition of trade by product sub-categories and source country (and the role that quotas may have played); and (3) a comparison of the cost of imported meats and the average domestic price of the like good at the HS 6-digit level. The results suggest that MA opportunities required and created by the WTO have not initiated a process of liberalization or reform in the context of Norwegian meat markets. Only a limited scope of import penetration was permitted and was often use in collaboration with other bilateral and preferential quotas. The net effect of the policy mix continues to resemble a variable levy that limits/controls the volume imported and maintains/stabilizes prices. The analysis of the comparison of the cost of imported meat, inclusive of relevant border, with the average domestic price generally shows that imports under non-discriminating MA entered the domestic market within a 10% margin of the domestic price. There is little indication that rents are generated on imports under multilateral MA, but substantial rents could have been earned under preferential MA quotas.