Development of Agricultural Market and Trade Policies in the CEE Candidate Countries.
Creators: name: Sepp, Mati
name: Gorton, Matthew
name: Miglavs, Andris
name: Kazlauskiene, Natalija
name: Meyers, William H.
name: Guba, Waldemar
name: Ratinger, Tomas
name: Safin, Marius
name: Simon, Françoise
name: Bozik, Marian
name: Michalek, Jerzy
name: Banse, Martin
name: Ferenczi, Tibor
name: Bojnec, Stefan
name: Turk, Jernej
name: Dalton, Graham E.
name: Turtoi, Crina Sinziana
name: Vincze, Maria-Magdolna
name: Davidova, Sophia
name: Ivanova, Nedka Momtscheva
name: Mishev, Plamen Dimitrov
name: Abele, Steffen
name: Frohberg, Klaus
name: Hartmann, Monika
name: Matthews, Alan
name: Weingarten, Peter
name: Sepp, Mati
name: Gorton, Matthew
name: Miglavs, Andris
name: Kazlauskiene, Natalija
name: Meyers, William H.
name: Guba, Waldemar
name: Ratinger, Tomas
name: Safin, Marius
name: Simon, Françoise
name: Bozik, Marian
name: Michalek, Jerzy
name: Banse, Martin
name: Ferenczi, Tibor
name: Bojnec, Stefan
name: Turk, Jernej
name: Dalton, Graham E.
name: Turtoi, Crina Sinziana
name: Vincze, Maria-Magdolna
name: Davidova, Sophia
name: Ivanova, Nedka Momtscheva
name: Mishev, Plamen Dimitrov
name: Abele, Steffen
name: Frohberg, Klaus
name: Hartmann, Monika
name: Matthews, Alan
name: Weingarten, Peter
Publisher: name: Unknown
Year: 2003
Subjects: Industrial Organization
International Development
Productivity Analysis

description: This synthesis report focuses on the evolution of agricultural market and trade policies in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) candidate countries in the period 1997 to 2001. The developments were crucially influenced by (OECD, 2000a): • the situation in world agricultural markets; • the overall macroeconomic development in the countries considered; • the prospective EU accession; • bringing domestic agricultural policy in line with the Uruguay Agreement on Agriculture (URAA). High 1997 agricultural prices on world commodity markets were followed by a marked depression in 1998. With the exemption of milk products this trend continued in 1999. Likewise the economic and financial crisis in Russia had a considerable impact on agricultural policies. It hit the regions´ exports resulting in a decline in industrial as well as agricultural output1. Thus, compared to the previous years most of the CEE candidate countries experienced a slow down or even negative rates of growth in their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 1998 and 1999. In addition those countries felt increased budgetary pressures. Agricultural market and trade policies largely reacted to these developments. Border protection was increased in many countries in 1998. This was combined in some cases with export subsidies, and ad hoc producer aids to mitigate the adverse effects. The prospect of EU accession also had an influence on the agricultural policy design in the region with many countries implementing EU-type policy instruments. Thus, the importance of per hectare and per head payments increased in the region, quota like measures were implemented in some countries and as part of this development Estonia introduced tariffs for agro-food imports. Finally, many countries also continued to adjust their policies to comply with their commitments agreed to in the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Despite these general tendencies there are also differences in the development of agricultural policies between the various CEE candidates. Chapter 2 therefore provides an overview of the changes of agricultural market and trade policies in each of the 10 accession countries. It addresses the policy issues market access (e.g. tariffs, special safeguard measures), export subsidies (value and quantities) and domestic support (intervention policies, direct payments, input subsidies, production quotas). Chapter 3 provides a brief assessment of recent policy developments in the region in the light of EU accession and WTO commitments. The development of prices and values, e.g. export subsidies, agricultural support expenditure, were presented in the background papers provided by the country experts in current prices in national currencies. In this synthesis report they are in addition converted in Euro. This firstly allows for a better comparison among the CEE candidate countries as well as between those countries and the EU. Some of the accession countries still suffer from high inflation and thus a strong depreciation of their currency. Thus secondly, the conversion to Euros allows the comparisons to be made in real terms.