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Tariff Peaks for Agricultural and Food Products: their Incidence and Alternatives for their Removal
Author(s) -
Fernández Javier
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.157
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1477-9552
pISSN - 0021-857X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1477-9552.2002.tb00002.x
Subject(s) - tariff , commodity , agriculture , liberalization , international economics , economics , market access , agricultural economics , business , market economy , geography , archaeology
The aim of the paper is the analysis of the current market access situation in global agricultural markets for the post‐Uruguay Round period. It identifies those commodity groups in the food and agricultural sector for which tariff peaks exist, and examines how various tariff‐cutting formulae would affect their levels. The related issues of tariff complexity and of the administration of Tariff Rate Quotas are also reviewed here. Results show that the implementation of the Uruguay Round agreement has not significantly reduced agricultural protection, since high tariff peaks and nontransparent tariff structures still persist. A repetition of the Uruguay Round cuts would not solve the problem of high protection levels either, and only the introduction of more aggressive harmonising formulae could lead to a true liberalisation of world agricultural and food markets.