A debate over environmental policies and trade competitiveness, “Do environmental policies really matter to impact trade competitiveness?” still exists during the past decade. The thesis aims at investigating the impact of WTO-EU environmental policies for the international olive oil market on production and export competitiveness of developing countries. In particular, we focus our analysis on the agro-industrial sector in the Arab countries, and we take specific reference to the case of the olive oil agro-industrial sector in Syria. In the frame of a partial equilibrium trade model, we incorporate the “end-of-the-pipe” environmental policies which in turn enhance the productivity of the polluting input. Moreover, a part of the burden of environmental compliance may be shifted onto foreign consumers. The most novel part of our model consists of the augmented effect of compliance with environmental policies, which includes not only the standard impact on the effective product price, but also on the input shadow price. The empirical findings, based on Syrian data, provide strong support to the Porter Hypothesis and its application to international markets for agro-industrial products. Accordingly, the study disproves the legitimacy of concerns that stricter environmental policies in developing economies may have negative impacts on their production and export competitiveness. In contrast, our results show that compliance with environmental policies under the large country assumption has positive effects on their international competitiveness of environmentally sensitive sectors, in particular. Therefore, the policy implications suggest the implementation of strict environmental regulatory policies supporting environmentally sound technologies.

A debate over environmental policies and trade competitiveness, “Do environmental policies really matter to impact trade competitiveness?” still exists during the past decade. The thesis aims at investigating the impact of WTO-EU environmental policies for the international olive oil market on production and export competitiveness of developing countries. In particular, we focus our analysis on the agro-industrial sector in the Arab countries, and we take specific reference to the case of the olive oil agro-industrial sector in Syria. In the frame of a partial equilibrium trade model, we incorporate the “end-of-the-pipe” environmental policies which in turn enhance the productivity of the polluting input. Moreover, a part of the burden of environmental compliance may be shifted onto foreign consumers. The most novel part of our model consists of the augmented effect of compliance with environmental policies, which includes not only the standard impact on the effective product price, but also on the input shadow price. The empirical findings, based on Syrian data, provide strong support to the Porter Hypothesis and its application to international markets for agro-industrial products. Accordingly, the study disproves the legitimacy of concerns that stricter environmental policies in developing economies may have negative impacts on their production and export competitiveness. In contrast, our results show that compliance with environmental policies under the large country assumption has positive effects on their international competitiveness of environmentally sensitive sectors, in particular. Therefore, the policy implications suggest the implementation of strict environmental regulatory policies supporting environmentally sound technologies.

Cette recherche porte sur l’adaptation socio-économique de la filière oléicole palestinienne face aux dispositifs de contrôle et de séparation israéliens (1993-2013). Cette filière a fait l’objet d’une profonde réhabilitation sur le plan politique, puisque les oliviers sont progressivement devenus l’icône du peuple palestinien et le symbole de sa lutte contre l’occupation. Tout en analysant la manière dont l’occupation bouleverse en profondeur leur environnement, l’étude envisage les Palestiniens comme des acteurs qui apprennent à contourner les restrictions israéliennes en développant des pratiques spécifiques et de nouveaux réseaux. L’analyse interroge notamment le rôle ambigu que jouent les acteurs étrangers, de plus en plus nombreux à se rendre en Cisjordanie pour des raisons professionnelles, touristiques, mais aussi militantes. Les oliviers palestiniens constituent un vecteur privilégié pour canaliser aussi bien les flux d’aide internationale que les manifestations de solidarité, ce qui génère de nombreuses retombées politiques et économiques. Des acteurs variés ont ainsi développé un large éventail de projets de développement, de services touristiques et de produits vendus au nom de la solidarité avec les Palestiniens, autour de l’oléiculture. En participant à ces nouveaux marchés, ils se soumettent à des contraintes qui les obligent à modifier leurs modes de faire, leurs discours, et leurs réseaux. Partant de l’étude des transformations des pratiques oléicoles sous l’effet de la politique de séparation, ce travail ouvre plus globalement sur une analyse de « l’économie de la séparation » et des relations entre les différents acteurs des espaces israélo-palestiniens / This research focuses on the socio-economic adaptation of the Palestinian olive oil sector in the face of Israeli control and separation schemes (1993-2013). This sector has benefited from a deep political rehabilitation, since olive trees have gradually become the icon of the Palestinian people and the symbol of their struggle against the occupation. While analyzing how the occupation devices deeply disrupt their environment, the study considers the Palestinians as active players who are learning to bypass Israeli restrictions by developing specific practices, formal and informal, and developing new networks. The analysis also focuses on the central role played by the growing number of foreigners in the West Bank (business people, tourists, pilgrims or activists). Palestinian olive trees are an opportune channel for both international aid and demonstrations of solidarity, generating many political and economic benefits. Various people have developed a wide range of development projects, tourist services and products sold in the name of solidarity with the Palestinians. By participating in these new markets, they undergo logistical and competitive constraints that force them to change their practices, their speeches and their networks. These interactions involve indeed a reorganization of economic practices but also a change in power, dependence and hierarchy relations between all the stakeholders. Based on the study of the transformations of olive practices as a result of the separation policy, this work opens more broadly into an analysis of "the separation of the economy" and the relationships between both the inhabitants and the visitors of Israeli-Palestinian lands.