Profiles of Tariffs in Global Agricultural Markets

by Paul Gibson, John Wainio, Daniel Whitley, and Mary Bohman

High protection for agricultural commodities in the form of tariffs continues to be the major factor restricting world trade. The large differences in average tariffs across countries make it possible for farmers in one country to benefit from tariff protection while farmers in other countries lose income because of lower prices resulting from those tariffs. This report provides the first comprehensive analysis of agricultural tariffs and tariff-rate quotas (limits on imported goods) across a large number of countries and commodities and finds that high average tariffs create barriers to markets for U.S. and other farmers.

Keywords: Market access, megatariffs, tariff profiles, over-quota tariffs, in-quota tariffs, tariff-rate quotas, World Trade Organization

In this publication...

• Entire Report
• Frontmatter (Title page, Contents, Summary)
• Introduction
• Why Tariffs Matter
• Methodology for Developing Tariff Profiles
• Tariff Profiles by Region and Commodity
• Tariff Rate Quotas
• Summing up Tariff Protection: OECD vs non-OECD
• Comparison of Bound and Applied Tariffs
• Tariff Escalation
• Agricultural Tariff Schedules of the United States, EU, and Japan
• Tariffs on Commodities of Export Interest to the United States
• Conclusions
• References
• Appendix: Technical Details of AVE Calculations
• Appendix Tables