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20 pages, 499 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Trade Effect of the EU’s Preference Margins and Non-Tariff Barriers

by Maria Cipollina and Federica Demaria

J. Risk Financial Manag. 2020, 13(9), 203; https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm13090203 - 9 Sep 2020

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 6995

Nowadays, trade negotiations afford both liberalism- and protectionism-oriented policies. Indeed, in recent decades, the developed countries have been actively engaged in negotiating many preferential agreements to integrate developing countries (DCs) into world trade and encourage their economic growth, but many of these schemes contrast with the complex rules, often imposed on international markets, that still are an obstacle for exporters. Their presence and related costs reduce the importance of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) in increasing trade flows. This article attempts to assess the impact of preferential trade policies on trade flows controlling for different non-tariff barriers (NTBs), using a structural gravity model. The analysis uses disaggregated data, registered in the year 2017, on EU imports (defined at level HS-6 digit) from a large number of exporters (187 developed and developing countries) and also includes the intra-EU trade. Our results show robust and positive estimates for the impact of preferences on bilateral trade flows, however, higher non-tariff barriers are likely to play a role in reducing both the extensive margins of trade, and so tariff preferences alone are not sufficient to access international markets. The impact of NTBs on the intensive margin of trade is ambiguous; some measures may act as catalysts and therefore increase trade, and others may act as an additional cost of trade and thus hinder trade. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue International Trade Theory and Policy)

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13 pages, 947 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluating Welfare Effects of Rice Import Quota in Japan: Based on Measuring Non-Tariff Barriers of SBS Rice Imports

by Qianhui Gao, Shoichi Ito, Kolawole Ogundari and Hisamitsu Saito

Sustainability 2016, 8(8), 817; https://doi.org/10.3390/su8080817 - 19 Aug 2016

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 8753

Abstract

The principal objective of this study is to analyze welfare effects of Japan’s rice import quota focusing on the simultaneous buy and sell (SBS) of the rice importation minimum access (MA) policy. Based on the utility function specified in this study, the constructed model is adopted to measure consumption patterns through estimating elasticity of substitution between imported rice and Japan’s domestic rice, and consumers’ preference parameters for different kinds of rice. The results showed that Japanese households prefer domestic rice to the imported rice. Besides, three scenarios of adjusting rice quota volumes were carried out to examine the changes in consumer prices of imported rice and Japanese consumers’ welfares. The results revealed that tariff equivalents of the SBS import quota almost doubled the scale of the mark-up, and the intervention by the Ministry of Agriculture of Japan did cause non-tariff barriers to trade (NTBs). Finally, if the SBS rice quota quantity was fixed at or larger than 180 thousand tons every fiscal year, the consumer prices of imported rice in Japan’s market would decrease to be less than the prices of Japan’s domestic rice, and therefore the imported rice would have more price advantages in this scenario. Full article

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