Group items tagged

A South African Politician has raised the tariff on chicken imports in South Africa. This is a pretty textbook example of tariff implementation as its goal is to support the country's "bleeding" chicken market. Since the tax has been raised by 8.75%, it is an ad valorem tariff.

OTTAWA - The Harper government is set to propose a number of new measures to close the U.S.-Canada consumer price gap, including the possibility of extending the tariff relief offered on sports equipment in the last budget to consumer electronics and other products. Put pretty simply, it seems that global corporations are using different prices on sports equipment and what not between US and Canada. In order to combat this, the countries are lowering their tariffs in an attempt to allow businesses to pass the savings onto consumers. The article doesn't give much details on the situation, but this is definitely a good example of how the manipulation of protectionist import controls can be used to affect the market.

This article talks about how tariffs on power have been raised by up to 30% in Pakistan. It talks about how different consumers will be affected depending on the amount of electricity they use.

This article discusses how sometimes the use of barriers has a negative effect on the economy of a country, for example, as can be seen with Bush's administration that imposed tariffs on steel imports. Trade protection can be seen with the rush of agreements that countries are not willing to partake in, such as Japan. Of course after the Bush administration, the democratic party picked up the "protectionist baton" and have worked toward trade liberalization.

The article talks about tariffs imposed by the US government on the steel market. It shows the other side of protectionism. In the case of the US the tariff impose had a negative effect on the steel market. The tariff robbed more in profits than it gave to steel making companies.

This article is about the Tariffs Ghana is currently suffering from and the fact they are supposed to go up in the new year.

MUTSUO BANBA's rice farm in Ishikawa prefecture, on the north-west coast of Japan's main island, is a mosaic of plots, many separated by land belonging to others. In the season, Mr Banba, a full-time farmer, takes care to water his rice every day. Others, he says disapprovingly, do not.

The article talks about field work in China and tariffs

The Nigerian government is trying to protect its local industries, and to do this, it is planning to implement more flexible trade policies. For example, the article talks about how for one period, tariffs will be capped at 4% rather than 2.5%, this gives the government more flexibility, so that it can adequately judge the needs of its industries.

 Too much protectionism is not good as well as no protectionism, it will ruin the free trade in the world. 

This article looks at the European Commission, an organization that has warned of a slide towards "blatant and uncontrolled protectionism" across the globe as emerging markets from several countries are starting to defend themselves, warning that abuses by countries like Russia, Brazil, Indonesia, China and other key states could pose a growing threat to global recovery. The EU trading body has said "154 new tariffs and restrictive measures have been pushed through over the past year while "virtually none" has been abolished"

Venezuela has joined Mercosur, six years after first applying to join the South American trading bloc. This article showcases features of economic integration, in this case customs union, which is a free trade area where members establish a common tariff and agree to other trade policies with non-member countries. Well, this article is particularly valuable also because it gives you that well-known sense of economic reality as a genuinely different economic world than that described in the economic theory. Countries cluster together for a mutual advantage, however, as opposed to comparative advantage concept and other highly cherished theoretical reasons, it always comes down to natural resources as vital sources of geopolitical influence, for instance oil, which is abundant in Venezuela. This can reasonably be inferred from the following quote: "Brazil said Mercosur was "also positioning itself as a global energy power in renewable and non-renewable resources". In the end, the disadvantages of economic integration are given, highlighting the fact that in economics there are perpetual advantages as well as disadvantages (influx of cheap agricultural products, little influence in decision-making processes). But then again, the disadvantages have to be explained within advantages in order to grasp the holistic situation (e.g. influx of cheap agricultural products forces Venezuelan farmers to cut down on their costs and improve on efficiency).

India has objected to some of the clauses in the trade facilitation agreement and sought support for the developing countries' food security proposal at the World Trade Organization (WTO). In the latest rounds of talks, India has also made it amply clear that if there is no forward movement on G-33 nations food security proposal, trade facilitation would also not move. The G-33 is a group of developing countries.