Do the services commitments that countries have made in their post-Uruguay Round regional trade agreements (RTAs) indicate the types of concessions that they would be willing to multilateralise in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)? While there are important legal and economic...

Information on export restrictive measures was collected from 16 countries for the period 2007 to 2011 or 2012 depending on the country. The data indicate that export measures were applied across the whole spectrum of agricultural and food products, but grains, oilseeds and vegetable oils were...

An important source of political opposition to measures aimed at reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) arises from concerns over their negative effects on the competitiveness of domestic firms, especially those that are energy-intensive and exposed to competition from foreign producers....

This report applies a cost-benefit analysis to quantify the economic effects of non-tariff measures in the agri-food sector. Three case studies are presented to demonstrate how such analysis can help identify least-cost solutions of Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) designed to ensure that imported...

This paper shows that a Tariff-Rate-Quota’s (TRQ) minimum access expansion can perversely trigger domestic price increases. Often, TRQs have prohibitive over-quota tariffs to mimic import-quotas, in providing minimum market access. In the WTO’s Doha Round, it is likely that...

Food safety standards have proliferated as multilateral and bilateral trade agreements constrain traditional barriers to agricultural trade. Stringent food standards can be driven by rising consumer and public concern about food safety and other social objectives, or by the lobbying efforts from...

We assess the literature on public and private quality standards and their impact in food markets, international trade, and global supply chains. We focus on their effects on welfare, trade, industrial organization, and labor markets and with special attention to the North-South context. We also...