Formulas and Flexibility in Trade Negotiations : Sensitive Agricultural Products in the World Trade Organization's Doha Agenda

Many trade negotiations involve large cuts in high tariffs, while allowing smaller cuts for an agreed share of politically sensitive products. The effects of these flexibilities on market access opportunities are difficult to predict, creating particular problems for developing countries in assessin...

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Main Authors: Jean, Sébastien, Laborde, David, Martin, Will
Format: Journal Article
Language:en_US
Published: World Bank 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13452
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recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-134522021-04-23T14:03:08Z Formulas and Flexibility in Trade Negotiations : Sensitive Agricultural Products in the World Trade Organization's Doha Agenda Jean, Sébastien Laborde, David Martin, Will domestic consumption import volume market access member countries multilateral agreements multilateral negotiations price effects tariff adjustments tariff changes tariff preferences tariff reduction tariff revenues terms of trade terms of trade gains trade agreement trade barriers trade negotiations trade tax world prices world trade Many trade negotiations involve large cuts in high tariffs, while allowing smaller cuts for an agreed share of politically sensitive products. The effects of these flexibilities on market access opportunities are difficult to predict, creating particular problems for developing countries in assessing whether to support a proposed trade agreement. Some widely used ad hoc approaches for identifying likely sensitive products—such as the highest-bound-tariff rule—suggest that the impact of a limited number of such exceptions on average tariffs and market access is likely to be minor. Applying a rigorous specification based on the apparent objectives of policymakers in setting the prenegotiation tariff enables more accurate assessment of the implications of sensitive-product provisions for average agricultural tariffs, economic welfare, and market access under the Doha negotiations. The analysis concludes that highest-tariff rules are likely to seriously underestimate the impacts on average tariffs and that treating even 2 percent of tariff lines as sensitive is likely to have a sharply adverse impact on economic welfare. The impacts on market access are also adverse, but much smaller, perhaps reflecting the mercantilist focus of the negotiating process. 2013-05-16T19:26:59Z 2013-05-16T19:26:59Z 2011-03-30 Journal Article World Bank Economic Review 1564-698X doi:10.1093/wber/lhr001 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13452 en_US World Bank Economic Review;24(3) CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank Journal Article
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language en_US
topic domestic consumption
import volume
market access
member countries
multilateral agreements
multilateral negotiations
price effects
tariff adjustments
tariff changes
tariff preferences
tariff reduction
tariff revenues
terms of trade
terms of trade gains
trade agreement
trade barriers
trade negotiations
trade tax
world prices
world trade
spellingShingle domestic consumption
import volume
market access
member countries
multilateral agreements
multilateral negotiations
price effects
tariff adjustments
tariff changes
tariff preferences
tariff reduction
tariff revenues
terms of trade
terms of trade gains
trade agreement
trade barriers
trade negotiations
trade tax
world prices
world trade
Jean, Sébastien
Laborde, David
Martin, Will
Formulas and Flexibility in Trade Negotiations : Sensitive Agricultural Products in the World Trade Organization's Doha Agenda
relation World Bank Economic Review;24(3)
description Many trade negotiations involve large cuts in high tariffs, while allowing smaller cuts for an agreed share of politically sensitive products. The effects of these flexibilities on market access opportunities are difficult to predict, creating particular problems for developing countries in assessing whether to support a proposed trade agreement. Some widely used ad hoc approaches for identifying likely sensitive products—such as the highest-bound-tariff rule—suggest that the impact of a limited number of such exceptions on average tariffs and market access is likely to be minor. Applying a rigorous specification based on the apparent objectives of policymakers in setting the prenegotiation tariff enables more accurate assessment of the implications of sensitive-product provisions for average agricultural tariffs, economic welfare, and market access under the Doha negotiations. The analysis concludes that highest-tariff rules are likely to seriously underestimate the impacts on average tariffs and that treating even 2 percent of tariff lines as sensitive is likely to have a sharply adverse impact on economic welfare. The impacts on market access are also adverse, but much smaller, perhaps reflecting the mercantilist focus of the negotiating process.
format Journal Article
author Jean, Sébastien
Laborde, David
Martin, Will
author_facet Jean, Sébastien
Laborde, David
Martin, Will
author_sort Jean, Sébastien
title Formulas and Flexibility in Trade Negotiations : Sensitive Agricultural Products in the World Trade Organization's Doha Agenda
title_short Formulas and Flexibility in Trade Negotiations : Sensitive Agricultural Products in the World Trade Organization's Doha Agenda
title_full Formulas and Flexibility in Trade Negotiations : Sensitive Agricultural Products in the World Trade Organization's Doha Agenda
title_fullStr Formulas and Flexibility in Trade Negotiations : Sensitive Agricultural Products in the World Trade Organization's Doha Agenda
title_full_unstemmed Formulas and Flexibility in Trade Negotiations : Sensitive Agricultural Products in the World Trade Organization's Doha Agenda
title_sort formulas and flexibility in trade negotiations : sensitive agricultural products in the world trade organization's doha agenda
publisher World Bank
publishDate 2013
url http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13452
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