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The proliferation of regional trade agreements in recent years has intensified the debate on the desirability of these agreements in themselves and their coexistence with multilateral free trade under the WTO. This study contributes to this debate by analyzing trade creation and trade diversion effects of the European Union on trade flows of six major agri-food products from 1985 to 2000. An extended gravity model is estimated employing pooled data and generalized least squares methods. The results show that the developments in the EU since the mid-1980s have served to boost agri-food trade significantly among the members. Some of the growth in intra-EU trade in agri-food products came at the expense of nonmembers as the EU reduced the degree of relative openness to trade with nonmembers during this period and diverted trade from the rest of the world into the intra-EU channels.JEL classification: C13, F49, Q17

The recent proliferation of regional trade agreements (RTAs) has intensified the debate on their merits. This study contributes to this debate by analyzing trade creation and diversion effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on trade in six important agrifood products. An extended gravity model is estimated using pooled data and generalized least squares methods. The result shows that the share of intraregional trade is growing within NAFTA and that NAFTA has displaced trade with the rest of the world. While NAFTA has served to boost trade among its members, it reduced the degree of openness to trade with nonmembers.

While the competitiveness of the Canadian agri-food sector attracted significant research attention since the mid 1980s, no study has measured competitiveness using longitudinal data and determined empirically the drivers of competitiveness. This article contributes to the competitiveness literature by measuring the international competitiveness of wheat, beef, and pork sectors in Canada using data from 1961 to 2011 and by determining the drivers of competitiveness. Our results demonstrate that Canada enjoys competitiveness in the wheat sector but not in the beef or pork sectors. Empirical results also suggest that the competitiveness of the Canadian wheat sector can be enhanced if the cost seed in Canada relative to that in the United States is lower. Similarly, if the relative labor cost of meat processing is lower, the competitiveness of both beef and pork sectors in Canada will be enhanced. Exchange rates are important drivers of international competitiveness of beef and pork sectors in Canada. The decoupled farm policies in Canada do not have a significant impact on the competitiveness of wheat and pork sectors in Canada. While our empirical results seem to indicate that major agri-food policies in Canada may not have delivered the expected benefits, the NRCA index did not allow us to separate the contributions of market and nonmarket failures to competitive performance of Canadian agriculture.Bien que la compétitivité du secteur agroalimentaire canadien ait suscité un vif intérêt de la part des chercheurs depuis le milieu des années 1980, aucuneétude ne l'aévaluéeà l'aide de données longitudinales et aucune n'en a déterminé de manière empirique les moteurs. Le présent article contribuè a la littérature sur la compétitivité en ce sens qu'il présente uneévaluation de la compétitivité des secteurs du blé, du boeuf et du porc canadiens sur la scène internationale effectuéeà l'aide de données couvrant la période 1961-2011 et en détermine les moteurs. Selon les résultats de notreétude, le Canada jouit d'une compétitivité dans le secteur du blé uniquement. Les résultats empiriques autorisent aussì a penser qu'il serait possible d'accroître la compétitivité du secteur du blé canadien si le coût des semences au Canadaétait plus faible que celui auxÉtats-Unis. De façon similaire, une baisse du coût relatif de la main-d'oeuvre dans les usines de transformation de la viande contribueraità accroître la compétitivité des secteurs du boeuf et du porc canadiens. Les taux de change sont des moteurs importants de la compétitivité des secteurs du boeuf et du porc canadiens sur la scène internationale. Au Canada, les politiques agricoles découplées n'ont pas de répercussions significatives sur la compétitivité des secteurs du blé et du porc canadiens. Bien que les résultats empiriques de notreétude indiquent que les principales politiques agroalimentaires au Canada n'ont peut-être pas procuré les avantages escomptés, l'indice de l'avantage comparatif révélé normalisé (ACRN) n'a pas permis de distinguer leséchecs du 519 520 CA...

Despite significant progress in theory and empirical methods, the analysis of food consumption patterns in developing countries, particularly those in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), has received very limited attention. An attempt is made in this article to estimate an Error Corrected Almost Ideal Demand System for four major cereals consumed in Kenya employing annual data from 1963 to 2005. This demand system performs well on both theoretical and empirical grounds. The symmetry and homogeneity conditions are supported by the data and the "Le Chatelier" principle holds. Empirically, all own-price elasticities are negative and significant at 5% level and irrespective of the time horizon, maize, wheat, rice, and sorghum may be considered as necessities in Kenya. While the expenditure elasticities of all four cereals are positive, they are inelastic both in the short run and in the long run. Finally, wheat and rice complement maize consumption in Kenya while sorghum acts as a substitute. Since cereal consumers have price and income inelastic responses, a combination of income and price-oriented policies could improve cereal consumption in Kenya. Copyright (c) 2010 International Association of Agricultural Economists.