Green Trade Agreements: Comparison of Canada, US and WTO

Paper presented at the CAES/NAREA meeting, Quebec City, June 29 - July 1, 2008.trade, free trade agreements, environment, World Trade Organization, Environmental Economics and Policy, International Relations/Trade,

IMPACTS OF NAFTA ON U.S.-MEXICO AGRICULTURAL TRADE

Paper presented at the Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association's Annual Meeting, Bar Harbor, ME, June 10-12, 2001 Data for 1989-99 indicate that U.S.-Mexico trade has increased substantially under NAFTA. Regression analyses do not provide strong evidence that NAFTA has been an mportant factor since the data indicate a continuation of previous trends. NAFTA resulted in trade under TRQs for previously prohibited products and enabled other trade to continue increasing.International Relations/Trade,

ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATIONS AND COMPETITIVENESS

Costs of environmental regulations, although relatively small, can be critical in the competitiveness of a product since the cost advantages of producers in one country are often very slim. Additional costs derived from new regulations are a factor in the continued importance of exports and of the maintaining or increasing a nations share of the international market. Governments try to assist their industries in overcoming the disadvantages caused by such added cost through subsidies, tax breaks, technical assistance or in other ways. In agriculture these are increasingly taking the form of green payments, which are currently exempt from the limits imposed on domestic subsidies. In addition to these mechanisms for addressing the environment, there also has been a selective but subversive process of erecting non-tariff barriers based on environmental protection issues. It is often difficult to determine if such measures are really for protecting the environment or for protecting domestic producers. They are, none-the-less, generally effective approaches for achieving environmental objectives and can also be effective measures to alter competitiveness. Competitiveness can be either enhanced or diminished by the environmental regimes of competing nations. The existence of negative externalities means that prices are lower than would prevail if all costs where included in the prices of the products.Environmental Economics and Policy, International Relations/Trade,

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF AGRICULTURAL TRADE UNDER NAFTA

NAFTA was the first trade liberalization agreement to explicitly include environmental provisions. Both agricultural trade and U.S. FDI in the Mexican food processing and agricultural sectors have increased since NAFTA's implementation. Environmental implications include a greater emphasis on the environment in Mexico as well as positive and negative impacts due to changes in scale, structure and technology in those sectors. Increased use of chemicals due to both increased outputs and a shift to greater horticultural crop production have negative impacts on the Mexican environment but improved technologies in processing produce favorable effects.Environmental Economics and Policy, International Relations/Trade,

Agriculturally Related Environmental Issues in Free Trade Agreements

The consideration of environmental matters in trade liberalization agreements has become an issue since they were included in NAFTA and recognized Uruguay round agreement that created the WTO. Many WTO members, especially the less developed countries, remain opposed to including environmental issues in trade agreements. However, Canada, the U.S. and a few other countries now include environmental provisions in their bilateral and regional trade agreements; the U.S. is required to do so under its 2002 Trade Promotion Act (PL 107-210). Furthermore, the declaration establishing the Doha Round of multilateral negotiations recognizes a role, albeit a limited one, for the environment in negotiating the next multilateral trade liberalization agreement. Negotiations on these issues have been intense with relatively little agreed on to date.trade and environment, agricultural trade, trade liberalization, Doha Round, Environmental Economics and Policy, International Relations/Trade,

Depletion of Ca2+ from the sarcoplasmic reticulum of cardiac muscle prompts phosphorylation of phospholamban to stimulate store refilling

Nonmuscle cells have almost ubiquitously evolved a mechanism to detect and prevent Ca(2+) store depletionstore operated calcium entry. No such mechanism has, as yet, been reported in cardiac myocytes. However, it is conceivable that such a mechanism may play an important role in cardiac Ca(2+) homeostasis to ensure the availability of sufficient stored Ca(2+) to maintain normal excitation contraction coupling. We present data that confirms the presence of a mechanism that is able to monitor the Ca(2+) load of the SR and initiate a signaling process to accelerate Ca(2+) uptake by the SR when store depletion is detected. Depletion of SR Ca(2+) activates a protein kinase, the principal SR substrate of which is phospholamban. Phosphorylation of this SR protein promotes Ca(2+) pump activity and therefore store refilling. Furthermore, a protein kinase activity associated with the SR that is inhibited by Ca(2+) ions has been identified. We have measured lumenal [Ca(2+)] by using a fluorescent Ca(2+) indicator and found that by initiating Ca(2+) uptake and increasing Ca(2+) load, we can inhibit the protein kinase activity associated with the SR. This confirms that a protein kinase, that is regulated by lumenal [Ca(2+)], has been identified and represents part of a previously unidentified signalling cascade. This local feedback mechanism would allow the myocyte to detect and prevent SR Ca(2+) load depletio

Environmental Provisions in Recent Regional Trade Agreements (2008 & 2009)

Despite a failure to achieve closure on the Doha Round of WTO negotiations, regional and bilateral trade agreements involving a variety of countries have continued to be negotiated, signed and implemented. Most of the recent trade agreements have contained some environmental provisions, ranging from a pledge to protect the environment to very extensive environmental requirements. These results appear to reflect a recognition that trade has environmental consequences and that trade agreements can be constructed to help mitigate such effects.environment, environmental provisions, free trade, trade agreements, Environmental Economics and Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, International Relations/Trade, Political Economy,

Environmental Provisions in Trade Agreements

Trade and environmental issues are interrelated, have become part of the negotiating process for free trade agreements, and are included in a substantial number of such agreements since being included in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NATA) and the Marakesh Agreement from Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations. Although the NAFTA agreement contained extensive environmental provisions and institutional mechanisms for their implementation in its environmental side agreement, most of those signed since that time are more modest. Typically they contain provisions for environmental cooperation, pledges to enforce environmental laws and to not to weaken their enforce so as to become environmental havens, and when developing countries are included pledges for technical and/or other assistance. While environmental issues are included in the ongoing Doha Round of the WTO negotiations, most international environmental efforts continue to be handled through a relatively large number of Multilateral Environmental AgreementsEnvironmental Economics and Policy, International Relations/Trade,

MODELING U.S. BROILER SUPPLY RESPONSE: A STRUCTURAL TIME SERIES APPROACH

A structural time series model is used to estimate the supply response function for broiler production in the United States using quarterly data and a structural time series model. This model has the advantage of expressing trend and seasonal elements as stochastic components, allowing a dynamic interpretation of the results and improving the forecast capabilities of the model. The results of the estimation indicate the continued importance of feed cost to poultry production and of technology as expressed by the stochastic trend variable. However, seasonal influences appear to have become less important, since the seasonal component was not statistically significant.Livestock Production/Industries,

AGRICULTURE IN THE APPALACHIAN REGION: 1965-2000

Revised version of a paper presented at the Southern Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting in Fort Worth, Texas, January 28-31, 2001Community/Rural/Urban Development,