The impact of trade liberalization on import demand

In this paper, we empirically analyze the effects of trade reforms on import demand and derive their implications on economic development in Turkey, a country that underwent sudden and substantial trade liberalization in the mid-1980s. The tool for this analysis is the estimation of disaggregated import demand elasticities. The adoption of a more liberal trade regime as well as radical attempts to foster economic development makes the Turkish experience particularly interesting for analysis. Almost all of our elasticities are estimated to be significant, unlike those of most previous studies in the literature on other countries. We test for different elasticities over “closed” and “open” economy periods, and find that the effects of the trade reforms of the 1980s were significant for a number of industries that form the backbone of the Turkish economy. We also compare our results with elasticity estimates from past studies for developed countries.

Technology transfer, quality standards, and North–South trade

This paper examines the economic consequences of technology transfer through licensing in a North–South model of vertical product differentiation, based on a product-line pricing framework. With its limited technological expertise, the southern firm cannot export to the northern market without purchasing the northern firm's “clean” and low-cost technology. With North–South cost-asymmetry, we conclude that the transfer of technology through licensing promotes trade, product variety and improves global welfare. However, without government intervention, the private levels of product quality chosen by firms tend to be lower than the socially optimal levels. This finding helps to explain why developed countries often set quality standards for imported foreign products.

Monitoring the impacts of trade agreements on food environments

The liberalization of international trade and foreign direct investment through multilateral, regional and bilateral agreements has had profound implications for the structure and nature of food systems, and therefore, for the availability, nutritional quality, accessibility, price and promotion of foods in different locations. Public health attention has only relatively recently turned to the links between trade and investment agreements, diets and health, and there is currently no systematic monitoring of this area. This paper reviews the available evidence on the links between trade agreements, food environments and diets from an obesity and non-communicable disease (NCD) perspective. Based on the key issues identified through the review, the paper outlines an approach for monitoring the potential impact of trade agreements on food environments and obesity/NCD risks. The proposed monitoring approach encompasses a set of guiding principles, recommended procedures for data collection and analysis, and quantifiable 'minimal', 'expanded' and 'optimal' measurement indicators to be tailored to national priorities, capacity and resources. Formal risk assessment processes of existing and evolving trade and investment agreements, which focus on their impacts on food environments will help inform the development of healthy trade policy, strengthen domestic nutrition and health policy space and ultimately protect population nutrition.

The home-market effect and bilateral trade patterns: a reexamination of the evidence

This paper finds that the evidence for the home market effect (HME) found by Hanson and Xiang (AER, 2004) is sensitive to the way the dependent and the independent variables are constructed. Second, we also find that the HME evidence goes away when we estimate their difference-in-difference gravity model on a truncated sample of positive trade flows. With Eaton–Tamura–Tobit, Heckman, and Helpman–Melitz–Rubinstein estimation of the gravity equation using Hanson and Xiang's data, we are unable to find any evidence for the HME. Finally, the HME evidence is also absent for a sample of Canadian provinces' exports to U.S. states. All of our results, taken together, do not reject the existence of the HME in general but rather suggest that the HME results found by Hanson and Xiang may not be robust.

The 2007 outbreak of equine influenza in Australia: lessons learned for international trade in horses

In August 2007 Australia experienced its first outbreak of equine influenza. The disease occurred first in a quarantine station for imported horses near Sydney and subsequently escaped into the general horse population. After an extensive campaign the disease was eradicated and Australia is again recognised as free of this disease. Equine influenza was then, and is now, recognised to be the major disease risk associated with live horse imports into Australia and measures designed to mitigate this risk formed the basis of the quarantine protocols then in place. Subsequent investigations into the cause of the outbreak identified failures in compliance with these quarantine requirements as a contributing factor. It is also likely that the immunity of horses vaccinated as part of the import protocol was less than optimal, and that this had a significant role to play in the escape of the disease from quarantine.