Bananas have been some of the most sensitive goods in the negotiations on regional trade agreements between the European Union (EU) and the Andean countries, as well as those between the EU and Central American countries. As the largest exporter, Ecuador plays a critical role in setting world...

The paper focuses on the importance of the assumptions made about market structure andfirm behaviors in empirical trade policy analysis. It addresses this issue with reference torecent changes in the EU import regime for bananas, namely the Economic PartnershipAgreements and the December 2009...

The paper reviews the models used in the past 10 years or so to analyze the expected effects of liberalizing agricultural trade. The main aim of the paper it to provide the reader with an overview of models which have been used to assess, first, during the Uruguay Round, the implications of...

The paper focuses on the importance of the assumptions made about market structure and firmbehaviors in empirical trade policy analysis. It does it with reference to the most recent changes in theEU import regime for bananas, namely the Economic Partnership Agreements and the December2009 WTO...

The paper shows how analyses assuming perfect competition can yield a distorted estimation of the expected effects of a trade liberalization when market imperfections exist. The analytical framework adopted is very simple and three extreme imperfect market structures are considered. In the first...