Welfare impacts of the 2006 United States – Canada Softwood Lumber Agreement

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (7) ◽  
pp. 950-958 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajan Parajuli ◽  
Daowei Zhang

In this paper, we evaluate the market and welfare effects of the 2006 United States (U.S.) – Canada Softwood Lumber Agreement (SLA 2006) based on a U.S. import demand model for Canadian softwood lumber. We find that SLA 2006 reduces the U.S. lumber imports from Canada by 7.78% in the months when export taxes took effect. The welfare analysis based on a partial equilibrium framework shows that U.S. lumber producers gained $1.6 billion and U.S. consumers lost $2.3 billion in 9 years under SLA 2006.

2001 ◽  
Vol 31 (11) ◽  
pp. 1958-1967 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daowei Zhang

This paper investigates welfare impacts of the 1996 United States – Canada Softwood Lumber (trade) Agreement (SLA), which set up a tariff-regulated quota system to restrict softwood lumber export from Canada to the United States. An aggregate price model is used to estimate the price impact of the SLA, and the implied quantity and welfare effects are examined. The results show that while the anticipated change in lumber price is about $59 in 1997 U.S. dollars or 16%, on average, for the first 4 years under the SLA, the gains to U.S. producers of softwood lumber are large and the losses to U.S. consumers are much larger. In addition, Canadian producers have benefitted from the SLA in the U.S. market, and the Canadian government has collected a small amount of additional export fees. As the overall efficiency costs of the SLA are modest, the SLA can be seen as an effective means of welfare transfer from U.S. consumers to the U.S. and Canadian producers. These results should provide a framework for ongoing trade policy debate.


2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 430-449 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELIJAH KOSSE ◽  
STEPHEN DEVADOSS

AbstractThis study develops a three-county trade model of the United States, Mexico, and Canada to analyze the effects of the 2013 Suspension Agreement on prices, production, consumption, trade flows, and welfare in each country. Although only the United States and Mexico are signatories to the agreement, Canada was also included because the U.S. minimum price distorts prices across the region. Three tomato categories—field, greenhouse, and cherry and grape—are studied because each has a distinct minimum price. The overall welfare effects are positive for Mexico and Canada, but negative for the United States.


2004 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 797-813 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyun J. Jin ◽  
Guedae Cho ◽  
Won W. Koo

An import demand model, augmented with third-country effect variables, is developed to examine the effects of strong U.S. dollar, volatility of the U.S. dollar, and competition among the exporting countries on the shares of U.S. wheat in Asian markets. In the empirical model, the dependent variable is the market shares of U.S. wheat. Explanatory variables include wheat prices of exporting countries, exchange rates between the importing and exporting countries, and volatilities of the exchange rates. Panel estimation results show that the U.S. currency value and volatility, Australian wheat price, and the volatilities of Canadian and Australian currency values have significant effects on U.S. market shares.


2019 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 368-384
Author(s):  
Wilson Sinclair ◽  
Amanda M. Countryman

AbstractAfter Mexican sugar producers gained unlimited, tariff-free access to the U.S. market in 2008, U.S. and Mexican governments bilaterally agreed to constrain Mexico’s sugar exports to the United States because of dumping allegations by U.S. producers in December 2014. This analysis employs a dynamic partial equilibrium model to estimate the price and welfare impacts of the U.S.-Mexico agreement by simulating the reimplementation of North American Free Trade Agreement sugar policies. Estimates suggest liberalizing the market would decrease U.S. sugar prices, translating to an average annual decrease in producer surplus of approximately $660 million and increase in consumer surplus of $1.67 billion across the simulation.


2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 1850070 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kozo Kiyota ◽  
Robert M Stern

The Michigan Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) Model of World Production and Trade is used to calculate the aggregate welfare and sectoral employment effects of the menu of U.S. trade policies. The menu of policies encompasses the various preferential U.S. bilateral and regional free trade agreements (FTAs) negotiated and in process, unilateral removal of existing trade barriers, and global (multilateral) free trade. The welfare impacts of the FTAs on the United States are shown to be rather small in absolute and relative terms. The sectoral employment effects are also generally small but vary across the individual sectors depending on the patterns of the bilateral liberalization. The welfare effects on the FTA partner countries are mostly positive though generally small, but there are some indications of potentially disruptive employment shifts in some partner countries. There are indications of trade diversion and detrimental welfare effects on nonmember countries for some of the FTAs analyzed. In comparison to the welfare gains from the U.S. FTAs, the gains from both unilateral trade liberalization by the United States and the FTA partners and from global (multilateral) free trade are shown to be rather substantial and more uniformly positive for all countries in the global trading system. The U.S. FTAs are based on “hub” and “spoke” arrangements. It is shown that the spokes emanate out in different and often overlapping directions, suggesting that the complex of bilateral FTAs may create distortions of the global trading system, which could be avoided if multilateral liberalization in the context of the Doha Round were to be carried out. Kozo Kiyota is Associate Professor of International Economics in the Faculty of Business Administration, Yokohama National University. He is also a Research Fellow at the Manufacturing Management Research Center (MMRC), the University of Tokyo and a Faculty Fellow at the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI). He received his Ph.D. from Keio University, Tokyo, Japan. His research focuses on empirical microeconomics. He has published articles in the International Journal of Industrial Organization, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, and The World Economy. Robert M. Stern is Professor of Economics and Public Policy (Emeritus) in the Department of Economics and Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan.


2019 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 511-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Muhammad ◽  
Constanza Valdes

AbstractExport tax reform in Argentina could improve its competitiveness in China’s soybean market, displacing exports from competing countries like Brazil and the United States. We examined the factors that determine China’s demand for imported soybean products and how export taxes could affect exporting countries. Using import demand and vector autoregression estimates, we conducted simulations of China’s import demand assuming the elimination of export taxes in Argentina. Results indicated that Argentine soybean products could realize gains in the Chinese market, but only in the short run. Projected import demand changes in the long run were insignificant for all exporting countries.


2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Amir Hossein Chizari ◽  
Fereshte Assadollahpour ◽  
Safdar Hosseini

The social welfare impacts of Iran’s maize import policies versus China and Brazil export policies using a game theoretic approach. The economy of maize export by China and Brazil as well as Iran’s import demand are analyzed using empirical imports models. In this study, supply, demand, imports and price equations are estimated using a three-stage least squares (3SLS) model to obtain elasticities. The estimated elasticities are incorporated in a non-cooperative dynamic game framework to analyze the possible impacts of policy changes in these three countries. This study analyzes various policies, including several scenarios regarding changes in Iran’s import tariff from 0% to 10% with respect to China and Brazil exported price ratio (export tax on domestic price of Iran) from 0.56-1.36. The results indicate that Iranian government should impose a tariff rate approximately 8% to maximize its own social welfare considering export taxes of 0.98 and 0.93 imposed by China and Brazil respectively. The results also suggest that policy makers in Iran should focus more on Iran’s tariff rates rather than export taxes imposed by China and Brazil.


2006 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Devadoss

I develop a two-country theoretical trade model to show that Canadian subsidies increase lumber supplies and exports to the United States, and the U.S. retaliatory tariff raises U.S. prices and safeguards producers, but hurts consumers. These results underscore the shortsightedness of policy decisions in a bilateral trade dispute, as empirical results from the multiregional spatial equilibrium trade model highlight that both countries pursue myopic policies without taking into account the reactions of other exporters and importers. For instance, after the imposition of U.S. tariffs, other exporters grab the market share lost by Canada in the United States, while Canada augments its exports to other importers.


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