Expert Meeting on a Composite Index of Market Access (CIMA)
24th July 2008
The commodities sector is the principle source of economic stimulus for developing countries; of these commodities, tropical products are undeniably the most important. The 20 main products classified as tropical account for 36 percent of developing countries’ incoming foreign currency from agricultural goods. For low income developing nations, tropical products account for 46 percent of their main foreign currency from agriculture.
Clearly, the deals that are struck in the agriculture talks currently underway in the Doha Round negotiations in the WTO will have major implications for these already vulnerable economies. Yet, it can be challenging to determine the real extent that such policies, like trade liberalisation, will have on commodities and their exporting countries. Many trade negotiators—including those directly involved in the Doha talks—focus only on how the reduction or elimination of tariffs on agricultural products would affect exports from developing countries entering developed countries markets. But, market access cannot be ensured if negotiations continue to focus on tariffs alone.
In order to measure the true impact of trade liberalisation, or conversely, the effective protection prevailing in tropical products, it is necessary to determine their ‘composite index of market access’ (CIMA): that is, a formula that accounts for tariffs plus domestic support plus non-tariff barriers. This methodology will more effectively appreciate and visualise the real magnitude of trade liberalisation achieved during the Doha Development Round. Furthermore, it could well prove to be a powerful tool in pursuing further liberalisation and effective reform.
The initiative of the CIMA came about to fill the gap in analysing the impacts of trade policies on developing markets. It was evident that something needed to be created to complement the analytical tools currently available in order to make them more useful for tropical product exporters specifically.
The CIMA project is not intended to provide a comparison of the effective rate of protection faced by different tropical products. Rather, its case studies will seek to illustrate the actual barriers faced by exporters of selected tropical products when trying to penetrate/export targeted developed country markets. Lest people think that liberalisation through tariff reduction achieves the aim of facilitating access for tropical products, this project highlights the fact that tariff reductions are only part of the puzzle.
In the first of a series of meetings on this new project, ICTSD organised an expert dialogue event in Washington, D.C. on 25 July 2008. The objective of this meeting was to discuss why there is a need for such an index, the coverage of measures to be included in determining the index, the options available for inclusion, and the ways CIMA can be implemented.
During this event, ICTSD brought together a small group of ten leading experts in trade and agriculture to contribute to this project’s operation now and in the future. Dr. Tim Josling, Professor Emeritus at the Food Research Institute and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University, will initiative discussions vis-a-vis a presentation of his own background paper on CIMA.