In this article, we study the trade creation effects of EU preferential trade agreements (PTAs) in the agriculture and food sectors for a large sample of developing countries in the period 1990-2006. We investigate the extent to which the PTAs affect trade through the extensive margin-number of exported products-or the intensive margin-volume of existing products. We use a gravity framework in a panel data setting, and different estimators to deal with the issues of zero trade flows and the presence of an upper bound in the dependent variable. The results show that EU PTAs positively affect the extensive margin in agricultural trade, but not in processed foods. As regards the intensive margin, the effect is driven by the role of tariffs alone, whereas the other provisions of PTAs do not exert any other significant impact on agricultural or food products. JEL classifications: F13, Q17, F14

Since 2004 there has been a sharp decrease in border protection for the EU rice industry. Because the EU grants trade preferences to a considerable number of rice exporting developing countries, the reform implied preference erosion as well. By addressing the impact of preference erosion on developing countries rice exports to the EU, this paper contributes two original insights to the literature: first, by proposing a new empirical approach to compute the preference margin when tariff rate quotas are in force which is based on the assumption of the existence of fixed costs and economies of scale in international trade; second, by estimating the trade elasticities of preferences by means of a dynamic panel gravity equation to deal with the issues of endogeneity of preferences and persistency in bilateral trade flows. The results show that the way preference margins are calculated matters significantly when assessing the existence and extent of their erosion and the values of trade elasticities. Finally, the estimations highlight the fact that the impact of preferences is still very strong for some of the countries concerned.

This paper investigates whether and how the distance in the quality of institutions between the investing and target country affects the pattern of Foreign Land Acquisitions (FLA). We estimate a panel gravity-like equation to assess the impact of the institutional distance on the amount of land acquired and the number of contracts signed. Our results show that the institutional distance significantly affects both the number of contracts and the amount of land, but that the direction of these effects varies according to the geographical region and the relative strength of institutions in the target countries, with Africa following a pattern of its own.

Although North–South preferential trade agreements (PTAs) are expected to affect foreign direct investment (FDI), there is not much evidence to date on the impact of EU PTAs on the pattern of FDI. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of EU PTAs on the outward stocks of FDI of the EU. We estimate a model based on the knowledge‐capital theory of the multinational enterprise over the period 1995–2005 using a sample of 173 host countries. Explanatory variables include measures of the level of bilateral protection and a dummy to capture the impact of deep integration provisions of PTAs. A dynamic panel model with fixed effects is used in order to take into account the dynamic behaviour of FDI and the heterogeneity bias. Results show that EU FDI is both horizontal and vertical. The level of EU protection affects FDI negatively, while the impact of the tariffs applied by host countries varies across groups of partner countries. Deep integration provisions affect EU FDI positively.

This paper reviews the state-of-the-art work on agri-food Multinational Enterprises (MNEs), by discussing the current state-of-play and the tools at our disposal to expand knowledge. After a critical discussion of available data, new data from OECD are used to provide a broad overview of the role of MNEs in the agri-food Global Value Chains (GVCs) and to draw a few stylized facts. Data reveals that in the food, beverages and tobacco industry MNE activity is higher than on average, while in agriculture it is lower; North-South flows are increasing as well as the role of MNE in the agri-food GVCs. The review of theoretical and of empirical literature shows how modern trade theories provide us with a strong theoretical background which, together with improved firm-level and country-level data, may help explaining observed patterns and effectively orientate empirical analyses of agri-food MNEs in several directions.