Identifier

etd-04082016-141919

Degree

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Agricultural Economics

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

This study analyzes the main factors that affect sugar imports to the United States from western hemisphere producing countries. Important variables such as Free Trade Agreements, production capacity levels and the quota imposed by the United States to the imported sugar will be analyzed under the scope of the gravity model. The estimation of the model is carried out using an OLS analysis. The variables used to create a reliable single-commodity gravity model are: sugar production indicators, distances between the involved countries, population, import quotas, and a set of dummy variables such as FTA (Free Trade Agreements) and border, that augment the model in order to identify and capture the effects of transactional costs and productivity on the sugar industry. The main focus is to assess the extent in which the variables affect sugar imports by the United States. The participation of the United States on international trade makes it essential identifying the FTAs in which they are involved. Some of the FTAs are the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), The Dominican Republic and Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR), and individual FTAs. On the other hand, the major constraint to U.S. sugar imports are the tariff rate-quotas (TRQ), which are analyzed in order to determine the degree of the effect of this distortion on sugar trade. This research will demonstrate that although the existence of efficient sugar producers and, that FTAs suppose an increase of trade between countries, in the sugar industry, quotas have shown weighting more than any other factor in the U.S. sugar imports.

Date

2016

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Kennedy, Philip L.

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.2231

Download

Share

COinS