Mauricio Jorge Pinto de Souza

The Impact of Regulatory Heterogeneity on Agri-food Trade

We estimate the impact of regulatory heterogeneity on agri-food trade using a gravity analysis that relies on detailed data on non-tariff measures (NTMs) collected by the NTM-Impact project. The data cover a broad range of import requirements for agricultural and food products for the EU and nine of its major trade partners. We find that trade is significantly reduced when importing countries have stricter maximum residue limits (MRLs) for plant products than exporting countries. For most other measures, due to their qualitative nature, we were unable to infer whether the importer has stricter standards relative to the exporter, and we do not find a robust relationship between these measures and trade. Our findings suggest that, at least for some import standards, harmonising regulations will increase trade. We also conclude that tariff reductions remain an effective means to increase trade even when NTMs abound.

Facilitação de comércio e impactos sobre o comércio bilateral

This work evaluates the effects of trade facilitation, defined as the simplification of border procedures, upon bilateral trade for a set of 43 countries, including Brazil and some of the countrys major trade partners. For that purpose, two indexes related to simplification of border procedures were constructed for the selected countries: an index about simplification of export procedures and other about simplification of import procedures. A gravity model is used to estimate the relationship between these indexes and the trade pattern between the countries. The results suggest that improvements in trade facilitation lead to higher indexes of trade simplification indexes which may stimulate bilateral trade within the countries.

Análise de evidências sobre a importância de barreiras técnicas à exportação de empresas brasileiras

This article presents results of a survey applied to Brazilian exporting firms to obtain primary data, which are subject to a statistical analysis about the relative importance attributed to technical barriers to trade. The methodological procedure used consisted in non parametric tests The firms that collaborated with the analysis indicated that technical barriers effects upon exports are relatively more important than tariff barriers, other non tariff barriers, taxes and international marketing costs. Factors such as price, external demand and transport costs seemed to be more important than technical requirements. Within the technical requirements, quality seemed to be what has most influence upon exports. In addition, different types of requirements present different impacts within the sectors evaluated.

Impactos da facilitação de comércio: evidências do modelo gravitacional

This study evaluates the effects of trade facilitation upon bilateral trade pattern between a set of countries including Brazil and some of its major partners. Variables associated to trade facilitation are used to construct three indexes of facilitation for each country of the sample: two indexes of import facilitation and one for facilitating exports. The relation of these indexes with the pattern of bilateral trade is estimated using a gravity model constructed with bilateral trade data within the countries. The results indicate that the degree of facilitation when considering the countries either as importer or exporter is an important determinant of the international trade pattern.

Lar “Doce” Lar: uma análise do consumo de açúcar e de produtos relacionados no Brasil

This study evaluates the consumption characteristics of sugar and products containing sugar based on data from the Brazilian Family Budget Surveys carried out in 2002/03 and 2008/09. The methodological approach consists in estimating the income elasticities, as proposed by Hoffmann (1983, 2010), to capture changes in elasticities as income varies. The results show a significant reduction in per capita consumption and expenditure with crystal and refined sugar in the period, while the consumption of sugar through products containing sugar has increased. In addition, the income elasticity estimated for industrial products was much higher than for sugar, suggesting that there is a growing preference for industrial products as income increases.