Tariff Rate Quotas and Their Administration

Tariff Rate Quotas are an important, though controversial instrument of international agricultural trade policy. They are meant to provide market access, but can be designed to be as restrictive as import quotas. In the political and academic discussion, quota administration is blamed to cause extra inefficiencies. However, little research exists on how different methods of quota administration compare to each other. This question is approached by an econometric model for censored panel data, which was applied to the EU's tariff rate quotas. Furthermore, this work analyses how tariff rate quotas are governed by WTO rules, how they are applied in practice by the EU and US, and how they could be reformed in the ongoing agricultural trade negotiations.

Autorentext

The Author: Christina Mönnich studied economics at the University of Göttingen. She began her graduate studies at the University of California, San Diego, during an exchange year. She continued and finished her Ph.D. at the Zentrum für internationale Entwicklungs- und Umweltforschung of the University of Gießen.

Inhalt

Contents: TRQs in Theory: Tariffs or Quotas? - TRQs in Theory: Quota Administration - TRQs in Practice: The Institutional Background of the World Trading System, the EU's and the USA's Multilateral TRQs - Modelling TRQs: Methodology - Modelling TRQs: Results of a censored panel data model on the EU's TRQs - Issues on Tariff Rate Quota Reform.