Current Agriculture, Food & Resource Issues
D. Surprenant and J.-P. Gervais
industry. Non-competitive markets will likely produce even more divergent interests
across all types of agents in the industry. The focus of the present study was to analyze
TRQ administration procedures from the perspective of importers. Canadian firms were
found to have substantially different vested interests with regards to Canadian import
policy for chicken. TRQ allocation procedures have important welfare effects
domestically and research must begin to address the domestic income distribution
implications of import licence allocation mechanisms. WTO negotiators should not focus
exclusively on analyzing the effects of TRQ administration procedures on the exporting
side of the market when addressing TRQ reforms. While such a focus represents a
legitimate and important issue, negotiators should not underestimate the impacts that TRQ
allocation reforms would have on domestic firms. If negotiators fail to consider domestic
issues, domestic lobbies can become important obstacles to TRQ reforms during the next
round of multilateral negotiations on agricultural trade. In Canada, a majority of firms
want to preserve the status quo in terms of import licence allocation procedures, but
specific opinions regarding the TRQ administration procedures vary significantly across
geographical regions. The government may be well advised to promote minor reforms to
its current allocation system and increased market access to foreign chicken products if it
does not want to attract negative feedback from the chicken importers’ lobby. Of course,
the ultimate political goal will be to find the right balance between the interests of
producers, importers and consumers.
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