The Price Stabilisation Effects of the EU import regime of fruit and vegetables: the case of tomatoes

The paper assesses the stabilization effects of the EU import regime for fresh fruit and vegetables based on the entry price system. The analysis is carried out on the EU prices of tomatoes and those of imports from Morocco, the main competing country on the EU domestic markets. It is based on the estimation of a threshold vector autoregressive econometric model that is shown capable of taking the workings of the import regime into account. The model shows that when prices of tomato imports are below the trigger entry prices the EU tomato market becomes isolated. However, the contribution of the import regime on price stabilization is rather limited. Since tomato imports from Morocco are granted zero tariff if their price is higher than the trigger entry price within a yearly quota that is completely filled, the largest contribution to market stabilization may well come from the size of the quota.