Economics

Econ 340

Regional Profile Assignment #2

Tariffs & Trade Policy

Individual Work before 2/23

In this assignment, you will study the tariffs and trade policies that your countries and regions have in place, and your

regional trade agreements that may be relevant.

1. Definitions: Look at the WTO’s “jargon buster.” Go to:

http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/tariffs_e/tariff_data_e.htm

Write down the definitions for the following: applied rates, bound rates, Harmonized System, Most Favoured

Nation tariff, tariff line.

2. Do some general research (ok to start by “Googling it.”) Get a general idea of the tariff situation of your

country. Write one paragraph summarizing the tariff situation in your country.

3. Look up tariff revenue as a percentage of government revenues. Look in the IMF’s Government Finance

Statistics. http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/gfs/yearbook/2008/gfsy08.pdf. If your country isn’t included,

look for an alternative reliable source.

4. Graphically inspect your country’s tariff levels in comparison to the rest of the world. Go to www.wto.org, (the

website of the World Trade Organization). The specific link for maps is:

http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/statis_maps_e.htm .

Look at two maps. (1) Tariff binding coverage. (2) MFN tariffs, simple average, applied. Write briefly about

what each of these maps tells you. (Comment on your country in relation to the rest of the world.)

Also look at the statistic for trade as a percentage of GDP here. Does it match the openness index that you

calculated in the first country profile exercise? Comment.

For the next two points, use the WTO tariff profile for your country. (For European Countries use European Union

(27).) http://stat.wto.org/TariffProfile/WSDBTariffPFHome.aspx?Language=E . Select your country.

5. First, make a histogram in Excel using the data in Part A.1. Use the “imports” line for both agricultural and

non-agricultural products. Comment on what this histogram tells you.

6. Next, study Part A.2 Look at the MFN Applied Duties, averages. Which products are most and least

protected. Find the three categories with the highest average applied tariffs and the three products with the

lowest average applied tariffs. Look back at your first country profile project – do the high or low tariff

categories correspond to your countries biggest categories of imports or exports?

7. Finally, look up at least one of your country’s regional trade agreements. What FTAs, Customs Unions, or

other agreements does your country belong to? Choose one and look into the history (when did they join?),

the reasoning (why was the union formed?), and the impact (how has the agreement affected the country’s

economy and how is it perceived?)

Submit this on Canvas by 10:30am on 2/23.

Friday 2/23

We will meet in Lewis 004 (the same room we used last time).

Each team should create a regional profile that synthesizes the information collected by individual team members.

Also CREATE and SUBMIT a six-slide power point file.

 One slide with a brief overview and percent revenue from tariffs. Are the countries in your region similar or

different in terms of how much revenue they raise from tariffs?

 One slide to discuss tariffs on agricultural goods. Again, are the countries similar or different? You can

include a summary histogram or several histograms, whatever makes sense…

 One slide for the non-agricultural tariffs, similar to the above.

 One slide for the goods with the highest average tariffs

 One slide for the goods with the lowest tariffs

 One slide to discuss trade agreements that are important in the region…

ONE TEAM MEMBER should submit the slides via Canvas.

For the presentations next week, you will be able to speak for about five minutes. Please be sure to tell us something

interesting – not just what the data is, but how you are beginning to understand the data. We will again use a random

process to determine which group members make the presentation.