Trade Restrictiveness Of Mexican Agricultural Policy

The trade restrictiveness index is the uniform trade tax factor which is equivalent in trade restrictiveness to the actual structure of domestic taxes subsidies. Its application to Mexican agricultural policy from 1985 to 1990 reveals an increase in restrictiveness. To return to the trade restrictiveness to subsidy structure is equivalent to a 34.4 per cent uniform ad valorem trade tax. The decomposition of causes reveals that maize policy is largely responsible. In contrast, the reduction of other crop price supports and the subsidy to fertilizer use are relatively unimportant. In contrast, the standard atheoretic producer subsidy and consumer subsidy equivalent indices give results indicating liberalization.