IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/iaae06/25773.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Tariff-only Import Regime for Bananas in the European Union: Setting the Tariff at Right Level is Impossible Mission

Author

Listed:
  • Guyomard, Herve
  • Le Mouel, Chantal
  • Levert, Fabrice

Abstract

On 29 November 2005, the European Union (EU) unilaterally introduced a tariff of ~176 per tonne to apply from 1 January 2006 to bananas imported from countries enjoying the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status. The new EU trade policy includes a duty-free annual import quota of 775,000 tonnes for bananas originating from African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states. This regime replaces the very complex and highly contested tariff-rate quota policy in place in the EU between 1993 and 2005. However, the banana international trade war very likely has not come to an end. Several Latin American countries have announced their intention to challenge the new EU trade policy by initiating a new WTO complaint. In this paper, we first propose an analysis of the two WTO arbitration awards that ruled against the initial EU tariff proposals. We show that the arbitrators' awards are incomplete notably because they do not explain why CIF (Cost, Insurance and Freight) import unit values in the EU-15 from MFN suppliers are much higher than FOB (Free on Board) export unit values in corresponding MFN countries adjusted by all relevant costs that should theoretically be added to transform FOB into CIF prices. One plausible explanation to this apparent paradox is that reported CIF prices include at least part of quota rents generated by the tariff-rate quota policy. On this basis, we analyse the impacts of different MFN tariff levels on EU banana imports under contrasting hypotheses regarding, first whether the price gap between CIF and FOB unit values does include at least part of quota rents, second whether banana exports to the EU from Western African ACP countries were constrained under the previous regime where a specific import quota were reserved to ACP countries. We also analyse the consequences of an "augmented" tariff-only import regime including a MFN tariff and a duty-free import quota for ACP bananas.

Suggested Citation

  • Guyomard, Herve & Le Mouel, Chantal & Levert, Fabrice, 2006. "The Tariff-only Import Regime for Bananas in the European Union: Setting the Tariff at Right Level is Impossible Mission," 2006 Annual Meeting, August 12-18, 2006, Queensland, Australia 25773, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:iaae06:25773
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.25773
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/25773/files/ip06gu11.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.25773?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Guyomard, Herve & Le Mouel, Chantal, 2003. "The New Banana Import Regime in the European Union: A Quantitative Assessment," Estey Centre Journal of International Law and Trade Policy, Estey Centre for Law and Economics in International Trade, vol. 4(2), pages 1-19.
    2. Deodhar, Satish Y. & Sheldon, Ian M., 1996. "Estimation Of Imperfect Competition In Food Marketing: A Dynamic Analysis Of The German Banana Market," Journal of Food Distribution Research, Food Distribution Research Society, vol. 27(3), pages 1-10, October.
    3. Steve McCorriston, 2000. "Market Structure Issues and the Evaluation of the Reform of the EU Banana Regime," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(7), pages 923-937, July.
    4. Read, Robert, 2001. "The Anatomy of the EU-US WTO Banana Trade Dispute," Estey Centre Journal of International Law and Trade Policy, Estey Centre for Law and Economics in International Trade, vol. 2(2), pages 1-26.
    5. Swinbank, Alan, 1996. "Capping the CAP? Implementation of the Uruguay round agreement by the European union," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 21(4-5), pages 393-407.
    6. S. Baranzoni & P. Bianchi & L. Lambertini, 2000. "Multiproduct Firms, Product Differentiation, and Market Structure," Working Papers 368, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    7. Anania, Giovanni, 2006. "The 2005 episodes of the "banana war" serial. An empirical assessment of the introduction by the European Union of a tariff-only import regime for bananas," Working Papers 18854, TRADEAG - Agricultural Trade Agreements.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Valenciano, Jaime de Pablo & Battistuzzi, Miguel Angel Giacinti & Azcaráte, Tomás García, 2015. ""Banana War" And World Trade Changes," International Journal of Food and Agricultural Economics (IJFAEC), Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University, Department of Economics and Finance, vol. 3(2), pages 1-12, April.
    2. Anania, Giovanni, 2010. "EU Economic Partnership Agreements and WTO negotiations. A quantitative assessment of trade preference granting and erosion in the banana market," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 140-153, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Herve Guyomard & Chantal Le Mouël & Fabrice Levert & . International Association of Agricultural Economists, 2006. "The tariff-only regime for bananas in the European Union: Settingthe tariff at right level is impossible mission," Post-Print hal-01594038, HAL.
    2. Anania, Giovanni, 2010. "EU Economic Partnership Agreements and WTO negotiations. A quantitative assessment of trade preference granting and erosion in the banana market," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 140-153, April.
    3. Hervé Guyomard & Chantal Le Mouël, 2003. "Tensions around a trade regime : the GATT/WTO banana story," Post-Print hal-01594084, HAL.
    4. Anania, Giovanni, 2006. "The 2005 episodes of the "banana war" serial. An empirical assessment of the introduction by the European Union of a tariff-only import regime for bananas," Working Papers 18854, TRADEAG - Agricultural Trade Agreements.
    5. Guyomard, Herve & Le Mouel, Chantal, 2003. "The New Banana Import Regime in the European Union: A Quantitative Assessment," Estey Centre Journal of International Law and Trade Policy, Estey Centre for Law and Economics in International Trade, vol. 4(2), pages 1-19.
    6. Hervé Guyomard & Chantal Le Mouël & Fabrice Levert & J. Lambana, 2005. "The tariff-only import regime for bananas in the European Union: Is setting the tariff at right level an impossible mission?," Post-Print halshs-00083696, HAL.
    7. Kerr, William A., 2005. "Vested Interests in Queuing and the Loss of the WTO's Club Good: The Long-run Costs of US Bilateralism," Estey Centre Journal of International Law and Trade Policy, Estey Centre for Law and Economics in International Trade, vol. 6(1), pages 1-10.
    8. David Vanzetti & Santiago Fernandez de Córdoba & Veronica Chau, 2005. "Banana Split: How Eu Policies Divide Global Producers," UNCTAD Blue Series Papers 31, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
    9. Wilson, John S. & Otsuki, Tsunehiro, 2004. "To spray or not to spray: pesticides, banana exports, and food safety," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 131-146, April.
    10. Kerr, William A., 2005. "Special and Differential Treatment: A Mechanism to Promote Development?," Estey Centre Journal of International Law and Trade Policy, Estey Centre for Law and Economics in International Trade, vol. 6(2), pages 1-11.
    11. Anania, Giovanni & Scoppola, Margherita, 2014. "Modeling trade policies under alternative market structures," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 185-206.
    12. Valenciano, Jaime de Pablo & Battistuzzi, Miguel Angel Giacinti & Azcaráte, Tomás García, 2015. ""Banana War" And World Trade Changes," International Journal of Food and Agricultural Economics (IJFAEC), Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University, Department of Economics and Finance, vol. 3(2), pages 1-12, April.
    13. Brissimis, Sophocles N. & Delis, Manthos D., 2011. "Bank-level estimates of market power," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 212(3), pages 508-517, August.
    14. Chris van Egeraat and Frank Barry, 2008. "The Irish Pharmaceutical Industry over the Boom Period and Beyond," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp271, IIIS.
    15. Symeonidis, George, 2001. "Price Competition, Innovation and Profitability: Theory and UK Evidence," CEPR Discussion Papers 2816, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. M. Musumeci, 2000. "Innovazione tecnologica e beni culturali. Uno studio sulla situazione della Sicilia," Working Paper CRENoS 200008, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    17. Steffen Hoernig, 2006. "Should uniform pricing constraints be imposed on entrants?," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 199-216, August.
    18. Na Li Dawson & Kathleen Segerson, 2008. "Voluntary Agreements with Industries: Participation Incentives with Industry-Wide Targets," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 84(1), pages 97-114.
    19. Natarajan Balasubramanian & Marvin B. Lieberman, 2010. "Industry learning environments and the heterogeneity of firm performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 390-412, April.
    20. Jay Kesan & Andres Gallo, 2006. "Why are the United States and the European Union failing to regulate the internet efficiently? Going beyond the bottom-up and top-down alternatives," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 237-266, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:iaae06:25773. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iaaeeea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.