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The EU Sugar Policy Regime and Implications of Reform (July 2008). The European Union's sugar policy underwent its first major reform in 2005 in response to mounting and unsustainable imbalances in supply and demand. The reform targeted only a few policy instruments (intervention price cut, voluntary production quota buyout, and restrictions on nonquota sugar exports), while leaving other key policies unchanged (interstate quota trading, sugar-substitute competition, and import barriers). A model-based analysis suggests that the initial reforms by themselves are unlikely to reduce overproduction due to the oligopolistic nature of the EU sugar market.
The
Future of Biofuels: A Global Perspective (November
2007). Global biofuel production tripled between 2000
and 2007, but still accounts for less than 3 percent of
the transportation fuel supply worldwide. Biofuels will
likely be part of a portfolio of solutions to high energy
prices, including conservation, more efficient energy
use, and use of other alternative fuels.
European Union-25 Sugar
Policy (January 2006). The EU approved a reform of its sugar policy
in November 2005, which is to be implemented in July 2006 and includes
a price reduction of 36.5 percent to be phased in by 2009. Analysis
shows a reduction of EU sugar production and a decline in EU
sugar exports of 3-4 million metric tons, with a resulting increase
in the world sugar price.
EU
and U.S. Organic Markets Face Strong Demand Under Different Policies (February 2006). Many
European Union (EU) countries have "green payments" available
for transitioning and continuing organic farmers. By contrast,
the U.S. Government has largely taken a free-market approach to
the organic
sector. Despite the different approaches, both regions have large
retail markets for organic foods. For the full report, see Market-Led
Growth vs. Government-Facilitated Growth: Development of the U.S.
and EU Organic Agricultural Sectors (August 2005).
Agricultural Trade Preferences and
the Developing Countries (May 2005). Nonreciprocal trade preference programs
originated in the 1970s as an effort by high-income developed countries
to provide tariff concessions for low-income countries. This study
focuses on the United States and European Union and finds that the
programs offer significant benefits for some countries, mostly the
higher income developing countries.
European
Union Adopts Significant Farm Reform (September 2004).
The EU continued to reform its Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)
in 2003-04 and will continue in 2005, building on earlier reforms
enacted since 1992. The latest reforms move to fully decoupled
payments through a single farm payment, which has important
implications for WTO negotiations and EU farmers’
decisions on what to produce. For the full report, see CAP
Reform of 2003-04 (August 2004).
European Trading Arrangements
in Fruits and Vegetables (July 2004). The EU participates in regional and
preferential trading arrangements more than any other country or
region. Over 70 percent of EU fruit and vegetable imports are from
countries benefiting from preferential treatment for some portion
of trade. Exports from countries without preferences, including
the United States, are at a disadvantage in EU markets.
Global Trade Patterns in Fruits
and Vegetables (June 2004). International trade in fruits and vegetables
has expanded at a higher rate than trade in other agricultural commodities,
and the variety of commodities has increased. Over the years, three
regions—the EU, the North American Free Trade Agreement area,
and Asia—have remained as both the major destinations and sources
of supply. A substantial share of their trade is intraregional,
particularly that of the EU.
EU Enlargement:
Implications for the New Member Countries, the United States,
and World Trade (April 2004). This is part one in a series
of forthcoming reports on the integration of the transition economies
of Central and Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States
into global commodity markets. The report presents a medium-term
forecast of the changes that EU enlargement will bring to commodity
production and trade in Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic
as well as to the enlarged EU, and to U.S. and world trade.
U.S.-EU Food and Agriculture
Comparisons (April 2005).
The European Union and United States are the world's largest agricultural
traders and among the largest producers and consumers. This
report provides information and analysis that reflects the similarities
and differences in their agricultural sectors when comparing
farm structure, production, consumption, trade, productivity,
farm policy, and responses to environmental issues. Implications
of EU enlargement for U.S. trade are also addressed.
Commodity
Policies of the U.S., EU, and Japan (December
2002). Commodity policies of the
United States, the European Union, and Japan address some of the
same goals, but there have always been key differences in approach
and in their policy instruments. In recent years, efforts to
encourage freer trade in farm commodities have led each toward
less trade-distorting policies.
Trade Among
Unequal Partners: Changing EU Trade Arrangements with Developing
Countries (September 2002). The EU, more than other WTO members, has used exceptions
to international trading rules to provide nonreciprocal trading
preferences to selected developing countries. Some of these arrangements
have been challenged under WTO procedures and the EU has responded
with proposals to convert the arrangements into reciprocal trading
areas, which may be disadvantageous to the developing countries
and to U.S. trading interests.
Livestock Feeding
and Feed Imports in the European Union—A Decade of Change (July 2002).
Events and policy changes in the livestock sectors of the European
Union during the 1990s produced important impacts on trade in feedstuffs.
Lower grain prices and a declining euro together with several animal
disease epidemics resulted in significant increases in the feeding
of grains and oilseed meals and a reduction in the feeding of nongrain
feed ingredients.
Traceability
for Food Marketing and Food Safety: What's the Next Step? (February
2002). Traceability
systems, which document information on specific product attributes
from creation through marketing, are used primarily to help
keep foods with different attributes separate. The EU's recent
proposal on traceability for distinguishing engineered crops
and foods is an example of government mandated traceability.
Is a government mandated system—rather than reliance on
private firms' documentation—a
practical or efficient use of traceability?
Pressures
for Change in Eastern Europe's Livestock Sector (January-February 2002). The meat and
dairy processing sectors of several East European countries are
undergoing rapid concentration, accelerated by pending accession
to the EU and pressure to meet strict EU sanitary standards. The
trend is most evident in Poland and Hungary, but all Eastern European
countries aspire to eventual EU membership and are experiencing
noticeable restructuring.
EU Preferential
Trading Agreements: Heightened Competition for U.S. (December 2001). Although
the EU has pursued global multilateral trade negotiations within
the WTO, it also participates in more nonglobal preferential trading
agreements (PTAs) than any other WTO member. These PTAs allow the
EU to control imports and assist in maintaining domestic EU prices.
The PTAs disadvantage U.S. exports to EU markets while providing
advantages to EU exports in the markets of EU preferred partners.
Crop Production
Capacity in Europe (March 2001). From Spain to Ukraine, agricultural production
is pursued under a vast array of agronomic and political conditions.
In Western Europe, policies in recent decades have maintained high
farm prices and provided income payments to farmers, often leading
to surplus production. In the decade ahead, Europe as a whole will
continue to be a net exporter of grain, although the magnitude will
depend partly on the former Soviet Union's ability to develop institutions
and policies to accommodate the new market conditions.
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