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

Agriculture in the Law of World Trade Organization Regulation on international agricultural trade is one of the most sensitive fields of international trade regulation by the agreements of the WTO. The current law is contained in the Agreement on Agriculture and it is the first regulation of the foreign trade in agricultural products in the WTO scheme. The purpose of this thesis is to clarify the important aspects of the current law. The thesis also addresses the context in which the Agreement on Agriculture takes effect, especially from the viewpoint of its influence on developing countries. Various chapters also briefly deal with the possible content of the future Agreement on Agriculture according to the most recent results of the Doha development round negotiations. The thesis is divided into seven chapters. The introductory chapter is dedicated to the beginnings of international agricultural trade regulation and to the negotiations of the Uruguay round that resulted in the establishment of the World Trade Organization and in the conclusion of the Agreement on Agriculture. The second chapter analyzes general provisions of the Agreement on Agriculture and the relations of the Agreement with other agreements that form the basis of the World Trade Organization. The third chapter deals with the...

<p>Trade in agricultural products between Mexico and the EU only counts for a small percentage of total trade between them. With the entry into force of the EU-Mexico FTA in 2000, the tariffs on a number of agriculture commodities between the two parties was eliminated or reduced. This will lead to an opening in the trade of agricultural products between the two markets, something that could affect the welfare of the Mexican people positively, if new trade is created. The elimination and reduction of tariffs on agricultural goods could also lead to positive consumption effects as prices on these goods could be lowered. Lower prices on agricultural goods could help a large number of people, especially the poor people of Mexico. </p><p>In this thesis, using theories on preferential trade, I aim to examine the effects on the Mexican people due to the elimination of traiffs on agricultural goods between Mexico and the EU consequential to the EU-Mexico Free Trade Agreement. The investigation was carried out for the first two years after integration between the two parties, focusing on agricultural goods in particular. I also aim to determine if there is any group in the Mexican society that has benefited more in terms of welfare as a consequence of the new FTA.</p>

Trade in agricultural products between Mexico and the EU only counts for a small percentage of total trade between them. With the entry into force of the EU-Mexico FTA in 2000, the tariffs on a number of agriculture commodities between the two parties was eliminated or reduced. This will lead to an opening in the trade of agricultural products between the two markets, something that could affect the welfare of the Mexican people positively, if new trade is created. The elimination and reduction of tariffs on agricultural goods could also lead to positive consumption effects as prices on these goods could be lowered. Lower prices on agricultural goods could help a large number of people, especially the poor people of Mexico. In this thesis, using theories on preferential trade, I aim to examine the effects on the Mexican people due to the elimination of traiffs on agricultural goods between Mexico and the EU consequential to the EU-Mexico Free Trade Agreement. The investigation was carried out for the first two years after integration between the two parties, focusing on agricultural goods in particular. I also aim to determine if there is any group in the Mexican society that has benefited more in terms of welfare as a consequence of the new FTA.

In this thesis, intra and extra European Union-15 agricultural trade is investigated for the period 1985 - 2005. The main purpose of this study is to find out to what extent the two major events of this period, the CAP reform of mid-1990&rsquo / s and the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (URAA) of 1995, changed the relative shares of extra and intra trade in overall agricultural trade. The efforts to make European agriculture more competitive and more integrated with the world market have not concluded in a way that the dominance of intra trade over extra trade is relieved. The intra trade still dominates the EU-15 agricultural trade as it has been dominating since 1985. European agricultural market has become more open to world products only in some product groups. Similarly, liberalizing reforms had limited impact on EU-15 countries on individual basis. The shares of intra trade and extra trade remained more and less stable in most of the member states.

No description available.

Thesis--Technische Universität Berlin, 1972.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, 1973. / Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 303-310).

The goal of the following paper is to analyse the trade potential for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and China in the trade of food products. Even though the trade in food products is comparably low, there are several reasons why it is worth a deeper analysis. Food security is having an important role in the Chinese domestic politics. Due to environmental, socio- economic and demographic changes, China cannot be self-sufficient and is therefore dependent on food imports. Since the introduction of the One Belt One Road Initiative and the 16+1 framework, China aims to improve the cooperation and trade in food commodities with participating countries. CEE can be a reliable partner because it produces high quality products with comparative advantages. With the help of the Gravity Model, the effects of the 16+1 framework was estimated, as well as the trade potential. Following the results, the introduction of the 16+1 framework has a positive and significant effect on agricultural trade between CEE and China. However, only five countries have potential to increase their food exports to China, while the remaining eleven already exceed their food exports. China on the other hand, is exporting below its potential in most of the cases.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Agricultural Economics / Andrew P. Barkley / Tariff rate quotas (TRQs) are one of the most widely used trade policy instruments in agricultural trade. The issue of whether TRQs are efficient trade policy instruments for improving market access has been widely debated. Some believe that TRQs impose an extra barrier to trade, circumvent the reforms sought under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and World Trade Organization (WTO) and may not be as attractive as initially envisioned. Others believe that the TRQs are useful and facilitate trade and liberalization. Any expansion in quota, or decrease in tariffs, or combinations of the two, has the potential to liberalize trade in a specific industry. There is strong clamor for continued reforms in the conduct of agricultural trade – including the implementation of TRQs. The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of TRQs, and determine the impact of their implementation on the Philippine corn market. Specifically, the study will estimate the quantities of supply, demand, imports, domestic equilibrium prices, and border prices under different TRQ liberalization regimes. In this study, an existing TRQ model was utilized to determine how effective TRQs are as a trade policy instrument for trade liberalization and increasing market access. The results reveal that the Philippine corn market was restricted by the out-quota tariff. De facto liberalization of the TRQ at the level of the out-quota rate (50%) or even at 35% (in-quota rate), does not completely liberalize the corn market. Progressively reducing both tariffs liberalizes the market and leads to increases in surpluses. The lower tariffs, however, lead to less government revenues. The smaller the gap between the in-quota and out-quota, the smaller the quota rents become. Increasing the quotas has no significant impact in liberalizing the corn market, and the increase in imports decrease producer surplus in all cases. The TRQ model of the Philippine corn sector reveals that changing the components of the TRQ would lead to different impacts on supply, demand, consumer, producer and net surplus, and government revenues. Knowledge of the regime in which the country is trading can determine which individual policy instrument of the TRQ, the in-quota and out-quota tariff and the quota, should be used to increase market access or address the concerns of stakeholders in the corn sector. It is thus important for policy makers to find a workable tariff level that would serve the interest of all stakeholders in the sector.