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The Art of Exceptions: Sensitive Products in the Doha Negotiations

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  • Christophe Gouel
  • Cristina Mitaritonna
  • Maria Priscila Ramos

Abstract

It is necessary for multilateral trade negotiations to include exceptions to accommodate politically sensitive sectors. However, given the highly concentrated distribution of agricultural protection, too many exceptions put at risk the objectives of World Trade Organization. This paper assesses the delicate balance required, based on the case of agricultural trade protection in Europe and Japan, two countries where tariff dismantling in the agricultural sector is a particularly sensitive issue. Since agricultural border protection is heterogeneous, we avoid aggregation bias by extending a multi-country computable general equilibrium model to the product level. This allows us to combine the assets from general equilibrium and partial equilibrium modeling, and to take explicit account of interdependencies and trade policies. The results suggest that consideration of sensitive products strongly limits the potential gains from a possible agriculture agreement at Doha. Moreover, there is no aggregate trade-off between decreasing tariffs and increasing/opening quotas. To achieve “substantial” market access improvements in the agricultural sector, the objective should be most favored nation tariff reduction.

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  • Christophe Gouel & Cristina Mitaritonna & Maria Priscila Ramos, 2010. "The Art of Exceptions: Sensitive Products in the Doha Negotiations," Working Papers 2010-20, CEPII research center.
  • Handle: RePEc:cii:cepidt:2010-20
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    3. Burrell, Alison M. & Ferrari, Emanuele & Mallado, Aida Gonzalez & Michalek, Jerzy, 2012. "EU market access for agricultural products in the Doha Development Round: A sensitive issue," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126950, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Listorti, Giulia & Kempen, Markus & Girardin, Jean & Kranzlein, Tim, 2011. "Do Price Uncertainties Affect the Use of Policy Flexibilities? The Selection of Sensitive Products in WTO Agricultural Negotiations," 2011 International Congress, August 30-September 2, 2011, Zurich, Switzerland 114381, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    5. Jean, Sébastien & Mulder, Nanno & Ramos, María Priscila, 2014. "A general equilibrium, ex-post evaluation of the EU–Chile Free Trade Agreement," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 33-45.
    6. Guimbard, Houssein & Le Goff, Maëlan, 2014. "Mega Deals: What Consequences for sub-Saharan Africa?," Conference papers 332514, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    7. Decreux, Yvan & Fontagné, Lionel, 2011. "Economic Impact of Potential Outcome of the DDA," Conference papers 332090, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    8. Listorti, Giulia & Tonini, Axel & Kempen, Markus & Adenauer, Marcel, 2013. "How to Implement WTO Scenarios in Simulation Models: Linking the TRIMAG Tariff Aggregation Tool to Capri," 135th Seminar, August 28-30, 2013, Belgrade, Serbia 160388, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    9. Yvan Decreux & Lionel Fontagné, 2013. "What Did Happen in the DDA? Quantifying the Role of Negotiation Modalities," Working Papers 2013-38, CEPII research center.
    10. David Laborde & Will Martin & Dominique van der Mensbrugghe, 2017. "Measuring the Impacts of Global Trade Reform with Optimal Aggregators of Distortions," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 403-425, May.
    11. Countryman, Amanda M. & Narayanan, Badri G., 2017. "Price volatility, tariff structure and the special safeguard mechanism," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 399-408.
    12. Himics, Mihaly & Listorti, Giulia & Tonini, Axel, 2020. "Simulated economic impacts in applied trade modelling: A comparison of tariff aggregation approaches," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 344-357.
    13. Decreux, Yvan & Fontagnã‰, Lionel, 2015. "What Next for Multilateral Trade Talks? Quantifying the Role of Negotiation Modalities," World Trade Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(1), pages 29-43, January.
    14. Yaghoob Jafari & Mihaly Himics & Wolfgang Britz & Jayson Beckman, 2021. "It is all in the details: A bilateral approach for modelling trade agreements at the tariff line," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 69(3), pages 415-442, September.
    15. Abbassi, Abdessalem & Tamini, Lota D. & Dakhlaoui, Ahlem, 2015. "Import quota allocation between regions under Cournot competition," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 484-490.
    16. Matthews, Alan & Salvatici, Luca & Scoppola, Margherita, 2017. "Trade Impacts of Agricultural Support in the EU," Commissioned Papers 252767, International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agricultural trade; Doha development agenda; CGE model; Disaggregation; Sensitive products; Tariff-rate quotas;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C68 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Computable General Equilibrium Models
    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F17 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Forecasting and Simulation
    • Q17 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agriculture in International Trade
    • Q18 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Policy; Food Policy; Animal Welfare Policy

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