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Feenstra Taylor Chapter 8
Feenstra Taylor Chapter 8
P2
P1
Surplus for
consumer D
purchasing quantity
D2 D2 D1 Quantity
P1
P0
Surplus for firm producing
quantity S0
S0 S1 Quantity
APPLICATION
• No trade equilibrium • Again we consider the
Figure 8.2 world of two countries,
Price
Home and Foreign, with
No-trade equilibrium producers and consumers.
S • Total Home welfare can be
CS measured by adding up
PA A consumer and producer
surplus.
PS
D
• We will compare the
welfare in Home in no-
trade and free-trade
situations.
Q0 Quantity
S1 D1 Quantity
Imports, M1
B
PW
Import demand
D curve, M
S1 Q0 D1 Quantity M1 Imports
Imports, M1
C
PW+t X*+t
B Foreign export
PW supply, X*
D M
S1 S2 D1 Quantity M2 M1 Imports
D2
M2
b d
PW+t
a c
PW
S1 S2 D2 D1 Quantity
M2
b d
PW+t
a c
PW
S1 S2 D2 D1 Quantity
M2
S1 S2 D2 D1 Quantity
M2
M2
Price
Dead weight loss
due to tariff, b+d
X*+ t
C
X*
M
M2 M1 Imports
APPLICATION
• We will estimate the deadweight loss due to the
U.S. steel tariff in place from March 2002 to
December 2003.
• President Bush requested that the U.S.
International Trade Commission (ITC) initiate a
Section 201 investigation into the steel industry.
• The tariffs varied across products, ranging from
10 to 20%—shown in Table 8.1—then falling over
time to be eliminated after 3 years.
APPLICATION
• President Bush took the recommendation of the
ITC but applied even higher tariffs, ranging from
8% to 30%.
• Knowing the U.S. trading partners would be upset
by this, President Bush exempted some countries
from the tariffs.
These included Canada, Mexico, Jordan, and Israel,
which all have free trade agreements with the U.S., and
100 small developing countries that were exporting only
a very small amount of steel to the U.S.
APPLICATION
Table 8.1
APPLICATION
• Deadweight Loss due to the Steel Tariff
We need to estimate the areas of triangle b+d we found in figure
8.5(b).
The base is the change in imports, ΔM, and the height is the
increase in domestic price, ΔP = t.
We will also use the percentage tariff, t/PW, and the percentage
change in the quantity of imports, % ΔM = ΔM/M.
APPLICATION
PW+t
t c
PW
M2 M1 Imports
ΔM
APPLICATION
• Using these definitions, the deadweight loss
relative to the value of imports can be rewritten
as:
DWL 1 tM 1 t
W W %M
P M 2 P M 2 P
W
• The most commonly used products had a
tariff of 30%, so the percentage increase in
the price is t/PW = 0.3, leading to %ΔM = 0.3.
APPLICATION
B*
PW
Home import
PA* demand, M
A*'
A*
S X*+t
A
t X*
C
P*+t
t PW
t
B*
P*
D C*
S1 S2 D2 D1 Quantity M2 M1 Imports
M2
M1
• Home Welfare
Fall in consumer surplus -(a+b+c+d)
Rise in producer surplus +a
Rise in government revenue +(c + e)
Net effect on Home welfaree – (b+d) + (e)
X*+t
S
b+d t X*
A
C
P*+t
a b c d
PW B*
P*
e e C*
D
M
S1 S2 D2 D1 Quantity M2 M1 Imports
X*+t
S
b+d t X*
A
C
P*+t
a b c d
PW B*
P*
e e f
D C*
M
S1 S2 D2 D1 Quantity M2 M1 Imports
APPLICATION
• Optimal Tariff
Compute the deadweight loss (area b+d) and the terms-of-
trade gain (area e) for each imported steel product.
Figure 8.8 graphs Home welfare against the level of the tariff.
A
No Trade
APPLICATION
APPLICATION
• Optimal Tariffs for Steel
If we apply this formula to the U.S. steel tariffs, we can
see how the tariffs applied compare to the theoretical
optimal tariff.
Table 8.2 shows various steel products along with their
respective elasticities of export supply to the U.S.
We can compare the actual tariff to the optimal tariff to
see where there were gains and where there were
losses from the tariffs.
But what about retaliation?...
APPLICATION
Table 8.2
S
Price Price
A
b d
C
b+d
P2
a c c Foreign export
B supply, X*
PW
Home import
D demand, M
S1 S2 D2 D1 Quantity M2 M1 Imports
2. Rent Seeking
Because of the gains associated with owning a quota
license, firms have an incentive to engage in
inefficient activities in order to obtain them.
Table 8.3
Table 8.4
APPLICATION
• One of the principles of GATT was that countries should
not use quotas to restrict imports.
• The MFA was a major exception to that which allowed the
industrialized countries to restrict imports of textile and
apparel products from the developing countries.
• Organized under GATT, importing countries could join the
MFA and arrange quotas bilaterally or unilaterally.
• Under the Uruguay round of WTO, developing countries
were able to negotiate an end to this system of import
quotas.
• Some developing countries and large producers in
importing countries were concerned with the potential of
Chinese exports on their economies.
APPLICATION
• Growth in Exports from China
Immediately after January 1, 2005, exports of textiles
and apparel from China grew rapidly.
In 2005, China’s textile and apparel imports to the U.S.
rose by more than 40% compared to 2004.
Figure 8.10 (a) shows the change in the value of
exports of textiles and apparel from different countries.
Note China.
The increases from China came at the expense of
some higher-cost exporters, some of whose exports to
the U.S. declined by 10 to 20%.
APPLICATION
Figure 8.10
APPLICATION
• Panel (b) of figure 8.10 shows the percentage
change in the prices of textiles and apparel
products from each country, depending on
whether the products were subject to the MFA
quota before January 1, 2005, or not.
• China had the largest drop in the prices from 2004
to 2005.
• Many other countries had a substantial fall in their
prices due to the end of the MFA quota.
APPLICATION
Figure 8.10
APPLICATION
• Welfare Cost of the MFA
Given the drop in prices in 2005, it is possible to
estimate the welfare loss due to the MFA.
Using the price drops from figure 8.10, the welfare loss
for the U.S. (b+c+d), is estimated at $6.5 to $16.2
billion in 2005 from the MFA.
APPLICATION
• Import Quality
Quotas are set on the quantity, not the quality of items imported.
Selling a higher value good for the same quantity will still meet the
quota limit but will bring more money back home.
Incentive to export higher quality products.