An analysis of Taiwanese meat demand within domestic and imported upon entering into World Trade Organization (WTO)

Abstract

For the meat demand within domestic and imported upon entering into World Trade Organization (WTO) analysis, the almost ideal demand system (AIDS) model is utilized. The empirical results show that: domestic pork was the primary choice of Taiwanese (50.14%) among the meat items; seasons have significant effect on meat consumption; Reaction of Taiwanese were sensitive for domestic pork, domestic fishery product and imported chicken. In addition, among all meat items, imported chicken, imported beef, domestic pork and domestic fishery products have the highest expenditure elastic ties, indicating that Taiwanese would increase their consumption of these meat items more than the others. Finally, the substitution effects significantly existed in the following meat items: domestic pork and imported pork, domestic chicken and domestic fishery product, imported beef and imported chicken; the complementary effects significantly existed in the following meat items: domestic chicken and imported pork, imported beef and imported pork. The complementary effects existed between domestic pork and that of the meat items of domestic fishery product, imported beef and imported chicken. The results of this study indicate that domestic and imported meat items is not totally substitutable. In order to reduce the impacts of imported meat items on domestic markets, self-ruling production control can be a way. Strategic marketing can also be applied to segment markets using domestic meat items with distinct qualitative attributes or different harvest seasons from imported meat items.