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Tariff escalation and Brazilian exports of soybean and coffee products

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Author(s):
Francine Rossi Rodrigues
Total Authors: 1
Document type: Master's Dissertation
Press: Piracicaba.
Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALA/BC)
Defense date:
Examining board members:
Heloisa Lee Burnquist; Cinthia Cabral da Costa; Humberto Francisco Silva Spolador
Advisor: Heloisa Lee Burnquist
Abstract

Tariff escalation, which is the use of import tariffs that grow according to the processing level of a product, stimulates the imports of primary commodities rather than processed products in importing markets that apply this tool. This papers goal was to measure the gains to Brazil of the elimination of the tariff escalation in coffee products in EU, and soybean products in China and EU. In addition, it aimed to compare these gains to those obtained from the reduction of the tariff escalation, which is being proposed under WTOs Doha Round. Tariff cuts were simulated and trade gains were quantified through Laird e Yeats (1986) modeling of partial equilibrium. The results indicated that Doha negotiations could reduce the tariff escalation currently applied over coffee and soybean chains in the selected markets. However, they are not enough to eliminate them, which would require larger tariff cuts. The increase in EU imports of coffee and soybean processed products from Brazil due to tariff escalation elimination could be 75.4% higher than considering only its reduction under Doha. In China, the tariff escalation elimination would also imply in larger volume of imports than those obtained from the tariff reduction under Doha: 27.4% more of meal, and nearly 100% and 107% of soybean oil, crude and refined, respectively. This paper additional goal was to identify the impacts of the Differential Exports Taxes DTE as a tool to counterbalance the negative impacts over soybean exporting countries of the tariff escalation applied by importing markets. To achieve this goal, national scenarios of export taxes were built up and added to the tariff escalation in the EU and China in order to obtain the impacts in terms of variation of the sectors processing margin. According to the results, due to the import tariffs, the processing margin in the importing markets has been expanded as follows: in US$ 4.89 per tonne (or 13%) in the EU and in US$ 14.46 (or 37%) in China, along of 2007 in average. Simulating the national taxation such as before Kandir law, the soybeans processing margin in Brasil could have been raised by US$ 5.74 (or 15%) in average along of the analyzed period. That expansion would have been enough to compensate the effects of the tariff escalation of the EU, but not the one applied by China. The DTE for soybeans in Argentina was also considered. For the analyzed period, the increase in the internal processing margin was not enough to totally offset China and EU tariff escalation effects. Nevertheless, the raise in the domestic processing margin contributed to benefit the exporters of processed products in Argentina in detriment of the Brazilians in the current situation. Considering that, in the soybean case, Argentina is Brazils main competitor and the country keeps a national taxation structure that favors the domestic processing industry in prejudice of Brazilian industry, it is important to consider the defense of DTE stricter rules internationally, besides the elimination of the tariff escalation in the importing markets. (AU)