Stefan Tangermann

Central and Eastern European agriculture in an expanding European Union.

A policy information system for agricultural sectors in transition countries productivity of emergent farm structures in C&E Europe transfers and distortions along CEEC food supply chains CEEC accession and the future of agricultural markets and EU expenditure macro-economic implications of extending CAP to CEEC analysis of central and eastern European price and trade policies.

Understanding International Trade in Agricultural Products: One Hundred Years of Contributions by Agricultural Economists

The study of international trade in agricultural products has developed rapidly over the past fifty years. In the 1960s the disarray in world agriculture caused by domestic price support policies became the focus of analytical studies. There followed attempts to measure the distortions caused by policies also in developing countries and to model their impact on world agricultural markets. Tools were advanced to explain the trends and variations in world prices and the implications of market imperfections. Challenges for the future include analyzing trade based on consumer preferences for certain production methods and understanding the impact of climate change mitigation and adaptation on trade. Copyright 2010, Oxford University Press.

Is the Concept of the Producer Support Estimate in Need of Revision

OECD’s Producer Support Estimate (PSE) is the only available source of internationally comparable information on support levels in agriculture. It attracts much attention and receives wide media coverage, not the least in reports that are critical of the way some agricultural policies are pursued. Interpretation of PSE results is not always in line with the underlying concepts, and often too narrowly focused on a few aggregate numbers. Against this background, the PSE approach as used by OECD has been criticized as providing potentially misleading information. This note deals with three central questions raised in such criticism.

Banana policy: a European perspective

European Union banana policies do not make economic sense, and hence criticism of these policies is justified. Some facts should, though, be remembered. If the EU had chosen free trade in bananas when the Single Market was established, certain producers both inside and outside the EU would have lost income, and it proved politically impossible to choose direct financial compensation. Also, the quantitative implications of the new EU banana regime may be less than sometimes assumed, as trade has not been reduced very much. The WTOs role is not to judge the economic merits of these policies, but their legal justification.

European agricultural policy at the crossroads: Dirigistic pseudo-solutions or genuine reforms?

It is now widely acknowledged that the agricultural policy course followed by the EC in the past cannot continue unchanged. Intensive negotiations on modifications to the Common Agricultural Policy have taken place, but have not yet led to agreement among the member countries. Professor Tangermann analyses the ideas for reform that are currently under discussion and presents possible alternatives.

The Kennedy Round

President J.F. Kennedy was inaugurated in January 1961. It was an important moment in world affairs. European economic recovery was completed. The European economies were individually strong. The Six had embarked upon the formation of an economic union, and Britain and other EFTA countries were expected to join soon. The economic union was developing with unexpected speed. ‘Europe’ was beginning to take on a distinctive identity, and some voices in Europe were saying that the influence of the United States in political, economic, and security matters should be diminished.

Eastward enlargement of the EU: Will agricultural policy be an obstacle?

The political preparations for enlarging the European Union to include the Central European countries are in full swing, but economic policy preparations have not yet begun. There is a need for adjustment primarily in the Central European countries, but also in sensitive areas in the EU itself, particularly the Common Agricultural Policy. Will agricultural policy be an obstacle to eastward enlargement?

The Future for Agriculture in the GATT

The new era in agricultural trade ushered in by the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture and the establishment of the World Trade Organization is one of tantalizing promise. Much of this promise stems from the fact that an agreement of substance was in the end achieved. Countries at last faced squarely the troublesome set of issues of high agricultural protection and world market disruption. In the end, unlike the agreements of the Kennedy and Tokyo Rounds, negotiators did not blink. Tough decisions were made rather than postponed or fudged. Yet the promise of a liberal, rule-based structure for agriculture remains unfulfilled. The process of fully reforming the trade system for farm products will take many more years, and will try the determination of countries to stay the course. In particular, the high levels of protection which remain in agricultural markets have now been revealed in the form of the newly-bound tariffs.1 Removing that protection will be a formidable task, but future negotiations can build on the foundations laid in the Uruguay Round.

Chapter 38 International trade policy and negotiations

Abstract Trade policy has been one of the most important issues in agricultural economics for more than 200 years. Our focus here is on evaluating relatively recent contributions to the understanding of agricultural trade policy and trade agreements. We present some background concerning trade policies and agreements and then consider the economic analysis of these agreements and policies. We concentrate on recent trade agreements, especially the Uruguay Round Agreement of 1994, and on recent analyses of this agreement and other trade policies in agriculture. We conclude by discussing current issues facing trade negotiations.

The Uruguay Round Negotiations

It must take stamina to be a trade negotiator. The Uruguay Round of trade negotiations was launched in September 1986 with the adoption of the ambitious agenda of the Punta del Este Declaration. It ended seven and a half years later with the signing of the Final Act in Marrakesh in April 1994. Not all of that time was taken up in active negotiations: as with the Tokyo Round, many months were spent waiting for a resolution to a few particularly sticky issues. The original intent had been to complete the negotiations by December 1990, but the four-year timetable began to look wildly optimistic as successive deadlines came and went.2 Towards the end, the very act of bringing the Round to a conclusion began to be important to preserve the credibility of the multilateral process. When the Final Act had been approved the relief among those concerned with the future of the multilateral trade system was palpable.