Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Andrew P. Barkley / The impact of agricultural trade liberalization on welfare is a major concern to the Government of Morocco. Several agricultural sectors and sub-sectors that are suffering from severe inefficiencies have been protected by the Government mainly through prohibitive import tariffs as a mean to support the income of domestic producers. Although the rhetoric in Morocco is of trade liberalization, the farm sector, with few exceptions, has largely escaped the general tendency. The livestock sector in general and the bovine meat production in particular figure among the most protected goods in the country. Bovine meat imports are imposed a prohibitive tariff rate of 254 percent. In addition, several technical barriers to trade exist in the form of rigid sanitary regulations. It is strategically important for Morocco's trade partners and those that are planning to negotiate different forms of trade agreements to understand the economic argument behind Moroccan protectionist policy in agriculture. The bovine meat market in Morocco is of high interest to major exporters given the growing size in domestic and tourist populations, the high domestic prices, as well as the increase in consumer awareness. Given its good sanitary status, Australia is a strong candidate for negotiating an agreement that will include bovine meat within a general agricultural package. The objective of this study is to evaluate economic evidence and determine whether or not opening up trade of bovine meat will have a net positive impact on welfare. Such evidence can become a strong argument in the hands of trade negotiators for major exporting nations such as Australia. This study uses data from the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the Ministry of Agriculture of Morocco and Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) to construct a partial equilibrium model for the bovine meat market. The model simulates different trade policies: closed market, free trade, quota and TRQ. Using the theory of comparative advantage and the concepts of consumer and producer surpluses, gains and losses are assessed and the net impact on welfare is evaluated. The empirical analysis suggests that total free trade in the bovine meat market results in the highest gain in social welfare when compared to protectionism (USD 246.62 million), followed by the TRQ (USD 206.11 million) and quota policy (USD 4.92 million). As hypothesized, the protectionist policy results in large losses in consumers' surplus. The results of the analysis converge with the economic theory and are compelling evidence for the benefits brought by openness in the bovine meat trade.

This thesis examines the ways that Brazilians are evaluated for their privileges in qualification for the affirmative action program. It critically examines the existing policies, how they function, and how they affect ideas of race in Brazil for both black and non-black Brazilians. Additionally, it proposes that the policies prioritize phenotype as a primary condition for qualifying for a quota in order to accomplish their initial objectives of fighting racial inequalities, compensating for historical injustices, contributing to the diversity of experiences and perspectives on campuses and in federal offices, and raising understanding of what it means to be black in Brazil.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the evolution of New Zealand�s Quota Management System (QMS) for marine fisheries. Analysis is performed using institutional theory and methodology. A broad review of institutional theory is made. In contrast to neoclassical economic theory, of which institutionalists have been a major voice of dissent, institutionalism stresses a holistic approach to policy analysis. An understanding of the the forces for institutional change and the structure of that change are the primary focus of institutionalism. An institutional framework for understanding the common pool nature of fishery resources is adopted. This highlights how the physical and technical characteristics of the resource and related decision-making arrangements influence the patterns of human interaction that determine the outcomes of a management regime such as the QMS. It is shown that the QMS was adopted in 1986 to address the biological crisis that had occurred because of past open access management policies. The fiscal crisis and the economic ideology prevailing at the time were also influential in promoting the QMS. The system was not able to be expanded as was intended because of a series of challenges from Maori disputing the Crown�s right to fishery resources. The Deed of Settlement signed in 1992, has supposedly settled Maori claims to commercial fisheries and allowed expansion of the QMS. Assessing the QMS using the institutional framework developed, showed the strong influence that neoclassical ideology has played in determining the outcomes achieved. Inadequate information concerning biophysical, social and economic implications of fishing constrain the ability of the QMS to successfully manage the resource. Inconsistencies and inadequacies in the legislation are only just being addressed as part of a comprehensive legislative review process. The future development of the QMS is also addressed in terms of the likelihood of cooperative common property management regimes being adopted. The common pool nature of the fisheries makes common property management regimes preferable. Cooperative community cultures are claimed by institutionalists to improve the outcomes achieved in common property regimes. There was considered, however, to be only limited potential for cooperation within the current institutional structure for New Zealand�s fisheries. Although the changes of the legislative review appear to be making some progressive changes, the diversity of interest groups and the prevailing western culture are seen as potential impediments to a comprehensive cooperative regime.

Abstract It was on Nov 19th 2005 that the Japanese Fishery Delegation announced in the annual conference of International Commission For The Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) that Taiwanese Atlantic Tuna Fishing Vessel Fleet laundered the fish at the high sea, violating the regulations on the Conservation of Tuna. As a result, they completely amputated the quota of tuna fish sales to Japan (quota) and cancelled the status of member nation in ICCAT. Finally, Taiwanese Fishery Delegation remained the member nation status unchanged after our efforts to explain the tough situation facing Taiwanese Tuna Fishing industry to Japan, but the quota was greatly downsized to 4,600 Metric Tons. Such severe action of revenge not only resulted in the complete collapse of Taiwan¡¦s Tuna Fishing activities in the Atlantic Ocean but also exposed Taiwanese Far Sea Fishing management to the International Fishery nations¡¦ practical competition crisis. The development of Taiwan¡¦s Far Sea Tuna Fishing Industry has extended across Tri-ocean. Taiwan has the most Tuna Long Liners, and our catches have exceeded those from some other countries, ranking No.1 in the world. Therefore, it has undeniably had a great influence on the development of some other nations¡¦ fishing industry. Moreover, Taiwanese fishing business owners have taken every opportunistic ways to sell the fish out of the quota to Japan. We were able to survive by good luck in the transitional period of fishing development before the year of 2000. But Tri-ocean Tuna Conservation Commissions have greatly increased the awareness of concept of Tuna Conservation in recent days, so it was unavoidable that they will impose as certain of regulations on the catch. If both Taiwan¡¦s government and fishing business owner don¡¦t find a solution to this sticky problem, it is just a matter of time that Taiwanese Long Liners will be evicted from Tri-Ocean. This research was started in the development process of Taiwan¡¦s Far Sea Tuna Industry, introducing the Tuna Conservation organizations of Tri-Ocean, (ICCAT, WCPFC, IATTC, IOTC, CCSBT), and the profiles on nutrition facts of Tuna Fish, fishing method and Fishing cooperation. This research also further groped and analyzed how both Taiwanese Fishing Authority and Fishing business owners reacted to the sanction pressure facing Taiwan in Tri-Ocean regions. This research will be used as the reference for both Taiwan¡¦s far sea Tuna Business owners and its decision-makers in face of meeting the severe pressure created by international quota. It will be instrumental to promoting Tuna fish consumption also. Keywords: Flag Of Convenience, Fishing Cooperation, Quota¡FTuna Long Liner, Sashimi Fishing Vessel.

Textiles and apparel trade has been governed by the Multi-Fiber Arrangement (MFA) for three decades. Trade restrictions have generated substantial welfare losses and price wedges in exporting and importing countries through trade distortions. Beginning in 1995, textiles and apparel trade underwent fundamental changes in trade flows and patterns. The World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC) aimed to remove all MFA quotas by January 2005. This study established an equilibrium displacement model to investigate the impact on textile and cotton sectors of different countries and country-groups of removing the MFA quota. The model specifies the basic linkages of textile and cotton markets in the United States, China and four other country-groups. With different assumptions about U.S. textile supply elasticity, foreign cotton exporters’ reaction and changes in the U.S. farm program payments, alternative scenarios are simulated to predict changes in domestic and import demand for textiles and apparel, import demand for U.S. cotton, domestic and import price of textiles and apparel, U.S. cotton price and adjusted world cotton price. Uniform distribution was imposed for selected parameters involved in the model to overcome the deficiency of equilibrium displacement models of assuming certainty of known related parameters. Results indicate increased import demand for U.S. cotton by China, higher U.S. cotton supply, more textile and apparel supply from China, decreased domestic demand for U.S. cotton, and lower U.S. domestic demand for textiles and apparel. However, prices of both textile and cotton markets experience both positive and negative changes under different scenarios. Holding other assumptions unchanged, when farm program payments increase, U.S. cotton price and adjusted world cotton price declined. When farm program payments are held constant, prices rise. The changes expected in U.S. cotton price are, in absolute value, greater than those of the adjusted world price.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the evolution of New Zealand�s Quota Management System (QMS) for marine fisheries. Analysis is performed using institutional theory and methodology. A broad review of institutional theory is made. In contrast to neoclassical economic theory, of which institutionalists have been a major voice of dissent, institutionalism stresses a holistic approach to policy analysis. An understanding of the the forces for institutional change and the structure of that change are the primary focus of institutionalism. An institutional framework for understanding the common pool nature of fishery resources is adopted. This highlights how the physical and technical characteristics of the resource and related decision-making arrangements influence the patterns of human interaction that determine the outcomes of a management regime such as the QMS. It is shown that the QMS was adopted in 1986 to address the biological crisis that had occurred because of past open access management policies. The fiscal crisis and the economic ideology prevailing at the time were also influential in promoting the QMS. The system was not able to be expanded as was intended because of a series of challenges from Maori disputing the Crown�s right to fishery resources. The Deed of Settlement signed in 1992, has supposedly settled Maori claims to commercial fisheries and allowed expansion of the QMS. Assessing the QMS using the institutional framework developed, showed the strong influence that neoclassical ideology has played in determining the outcomes achieved. Inadequate information concerning biophysical, social and economic implications of fishing constrain the ability of the QMS to successfully manage the resource. Inconsistencies and inadequacies in the legislation are only just being addressed as part of a comprehensive legislative review process. The future development of the QMS is also addressed in terms of the likelihood of cooperative common property management regimes being adopted. The common pool nature of the fisheries makes common property management regimes preferable. Cooperative community cultures are claimed by institutionalists to improve the outcomes achieved in common property regimes. There was considered, however, to be only limited potential for cooperation within the current institutional structure for New Zealand�s fisheries. Although the changes of the legislative review appear to be making some progressive changes, the diversity of interest groups and the prevailing western culture are seen as potential impediments to a comprehensive cooperative regime.

This master thesis is about tax quota and its change in the states of European Union. The practical part starts with display of the tax quota in the states of EU and its changes after 20 years, there is a comparison of the tax quota in 1995 and 2015. In these years, there is also performed the cluster analysis in the programme STATISTICA 12. The cluster analysis consists of four variables (partial tax quota): indirect taxes, personal income taxes, corporate income taxes, social contributions. The aim of this analysis is to find groups of states with a similar development of the tax quota. Then follows the convergence analysis, which says that tax systems of the states in EU are gradually approaching each other. The last topic in this thesis is a comparison of the average values EU of the development tax quota with development of the total tax revenues and the GDP. The very similar and unstable development of the two last mentioned indicators are ensuring a relatively stable value of the tax quota over time.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects on U.S. textile and apparel imports of the quantitative restrictions imposed under the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC) (1995-2005), the post-ATC U.S. safeguard quotas on 21 categories of Chinese textile and apparel products (2006-2008), and no quantitative restrictions on U.S. textile and apparel imports (2009-2010). Data were sourced from the Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA) in the U.S. Department of Commerce, the GeoDist dataset from the Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales (CEPII), and the United Nations Commodity Trade (U.N. Comtrade) database. In this research, three gravity equations were developed and estimated based on the existing gravity model. The first gravity equation was estimated to assess the effects of the independent variables commonly included in gravity models on the total value of U.S. textile and apparel imports from 187 exporting countries with a scaled dependent variable and from 177 without it. The result of the first gravity equation indicated that distance and the per capita GDPs of the exporting countries, exchange rates, and the total GDPs of the exporting countries are statistically significant and have the expected signs in the model with the scaled dependent variable. The second gravity equation was estimated to access the overall effect of the presence or absence of quotas and VERs on U.S. textile and apparel import quantity from the 187 exporting countries. The results from the second gravity model showed that the presence or absence of quotas or VERs is significant and has an unexpected positive sign because the United States tended to impose quotas and VERs on textile and apparel products that it imported in large amounts. The third gravity equation was estimated to assess trade creation and trade diversion effect of the quota and VER levels of U.S. textile and apparel imports with separate equations by product types considering the endogeneity by applying instrumental variables. The result from the third gravity equation showed that the quota and VER level is significant for fabric, apparel, and made-up products with expected signs but the variable is not significant for yarn products. These findings suggest that U.S. textile and apparel imports from the exporting countries limited by quotas and VERs on U.S. textile and apparel imports increased more than rest of world (ROW) imports from those countries as the quota and VER levels on U.S textile and apparel imports increased. Therefore, trade creation occurred between the United States and the exporting countries as the total SME quota or VER levels on those imports increased during the ATC and safeguard period. However, these findings show the demand of yarn as intermediates does not increase much in the United States; therefore, the increase of the total yarn quota or VER level has less of an effect on the yarn imports than other product types. / Ph. D.

No description available.

Pioneered by Bernard et al. (1995) and Melitz (2003), recent advances in the international economics literature emphasizing the role of firm-level productivity differences has shed new light on the dynamics of international trade. Despite gaining significant traction in the international economics literature, firm-level analysis in the agricultural economics literature is comparatively rare, particularly in an emerging, industrialized economy such as China. This dissertation consists of three essays that provide firm-level analysis on Chinese agricultural trade since China's accession to the world trade organization (WTO). In the first essay, I segment by ownership structure to examine the role of different firm types in Chinese agricultural trade and find that domestic, private firms dominate Chinese agricultural trade and contribute 60%, or $96 billion, of the agricultural trade growth over the 2000-2016 period. Furthermore, the results show that although the economic weight of the state sector is declining, the share of state-owned enterprises (SOE) in strategically important commodities, such as wheat, corn, and rice imports are consistently high. In the second essay, I develop an empirical strategy to break down China's agricultural import trade growth. The findings reveal that China's agricultural import growth is highly concentrated among a small group of firms, where the top 10% of Chinese agricultural importers account for nearly 90% of the country's agricultural imports. I also find evidence of significant agri-food product importer turnover as over 40% of new firms entering China's agricultural import market exited after just 1.7 years during our sample period. In the last essay, I evaluate the efficiency of a specific Chinese non-tariff measure (NTM), the tariff rate quota (TRQ), using Chinese firm-level data. Two key findings emerge from this analysis. First, unlike results from country-level analyses, I find that SOEs import quantities are more sensitive to price changes. Additionally, more SOEs import grains when the price differential between domestic and world markets increases. Second, I fail to find any causal difference in the SOE share of TRQ imports before and after the two previously mentioned policy events were implemented to promote the market orientation of Chinese grain imports / PHD