Competitiveness and trade policy problems in agricultural exports [Elektronische Ressource] : a perspective of producing, exporting countries in the case of banana trade to the European Union / vorgelegt von Jahir Enrique Lombana Coy

Jahir Lombana

Sujets

• Handel

Informations

• Publié par: georg-august-universitat_gottingen
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2006
• Nombre de lectures: 20
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

COMPETITIVENESS AND TRADE POLICY PROBLEMS IN
AGRICULTURAL EXPORTS:
A PERSPECTIVE OF PRODUCING/EXPORTING COUNTRIES IN
THE CASE OF BANANA TRADE TO THE EUROPEAN UNION







Dissertation
zur Erlangung des wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Doktorgrades
der Wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität Göttingen







vorgelegt von
Jahir Enrique Lombana Coy
aus Bogotá D.C. – Kolumbien







Göttingen, 2006































Erstgutachter: Prof. em. Dr. Hermann Sautter
Zweitgutachter: Prof. Dr. Dr. Winfried Manig
Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 3. Juli 2006
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Almost four years ago, not an apple, but a banana a day kept the doctor away. The
doctor (title) is not so far away anymore. This first page of the thesis, though the last
written, contains real conclusions of my personal experience during this long period of
research. What I really learnt was not only about bananas and competitiveness but also
about relationships between people, friendships and generosity. Without the help of all
people summarized in the following paragraphs all these words written in the whole
thesis would be meaningless.
First of all I have to thank to my Doktorvater Professor Dr. Hermann Sautter for his
patience and support while reading and correcting my sometimes hieroglyphic writing
and Dr. Felicitas Nowak-Lehman who supported me in all academic meetings and gave
me suggestions to improve the drafts of the thesis. I want also to thank Professor Dr. Dr.
Winfried Manig who gave me the last suggestions to improve this paper and Professor
Dr. Ludwig Theuvsen for his gentle participation in the final examination.
During the multiple geographic stations where I wrote my thesis I met so much people
that it was necessary to sow a friend’s tree which protected and surrounded the growing
of the other tree, my research. All the leaves of the friends’ tree are very carefully kept
in the forest of my heart. Special rainbows of gratitude: in Spain to Laura Márquez and
Inmaculada Martínez and the Economics Faculty staff at the Universidad Jaume I, who
at the beginning of the research gave me the first drops of water to grow up the seed of
my research.
In Colombia to the staff from AUGURA especially to Sabina Álvarez, María del
Carmen Giraldo, Clara Hernández, Roberto Hoyos, Felipe Laverde, Adriana Montoya,
and Rosa Sánchez; to Juan David Alarcón, CEO of Turbana Corporation; to Mrs. Clara
Gaviria, Colombian Trade Representative in Brussels; to Dr. Eduardo Muñoz,
Colombian Vice-minister of Trade; to Nicolas Echeverría, Colombian Ambassador in
Brussels, and to Tomás Uribe, Former Trade Ministry Officer. They were always
attentive to the growth of the tree and gave it when necessary the sufficient fertilizer of
information.
v
In France to Hervé Guyomard, Chantal Le Mouël, Fabrice Levert, and the INRA staff
who harvest with me the sweetest fruits of this research and gave me the push to
continue growing it with the help of thei friendship and an unforgettable work
environment. In the Netherlands to Kees Burger and Wouter Zant and the staff of the
Economic and Social Institute at the Free University of Amsterdam who collected the
ripest fruits of my research. In Germany: to the staff at BanaFair e.V. whit whom I first
use the practical knowledge of my theoretical research; to the academic and
administrative staff at the Ibero-Amerika Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, who
supported me during the time of my staying and saw a great part of the process of
growing; to the personal support of Heiner Willen, Gabrielle Beitzel and the staff and
friends at the Katholische Hochschule Gemeinde – Göttingen, who also gave me the
possibility to pass on some of the shadow of my growing tree to the service of others.
Furthermore, to the financial and interdisciplinary support by the Katholische
Akademische Ausländer-Dienst that made possible that this tree was sustainable. I also
want to thank Adriana Cardozo, Iván Cuellar, Ludger Löhning, Blanca Panqueva,
Morgane Régart and Rodrigo Vélez for the comments on previous drafts, and Adriane
Nowak, Richard Varela for the corrections of the final drafts. Moreover, I would like to
thank Deborah Bowen at the German Institute of Economic Research for the time-
consuming corrections of the last version of the thesis.
As I said there is a tree of friends; they all know how important they have been for me
in every stage of this process. I would need more than the pages of this thesis to express
my gratitude for every single one. However, without a couple of flowers it would have
been impossible to finish this project. My greatest sense of gratitude and love to
Adriane and Aura María for staying with me and smiling both in the good and the bad
times. Finally, I would like to thank God who makes the sun rise every day to keep my
friends’ tree growing and gave me the strength to cultivate this research.
vi
ZUSAMMENFASSUNG

Die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit ist von einigen Wirtschaftswissenschaftlern lediglich als ein
Schlagwort betrachtet worden, weil es keinen Konsens darüber gibt, wie dieses
Allerweltswort zu definieren ist. Jedoch wird es häufig von Politikern und
Geschäftsleuten benutzt, um die Position von Ländern, Sektoren, Firmen und/oder
Produkten im internationalen Handel zu beschreiben. Aus diesem Grund befürwortet
eine weitere Gruppe von Wirtschaftswissenschaftlern eine Verwendung des Begriffs
mit der Absicht, dadurch die Defizite der klassischen Außenhandelstheorie und der
Theorie des Komparativen Vorteils aufzufangen. Diese Dissertation unterstützt diese
zweite Gruppe, indem die Theorie der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit auf eine bestimmte
Fallstudie angewendet wird: die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit des Bananenexports
ausgewählter Hersteller- bzw. Exportländer in die Europäische Union.
Die vorliegende Studie ist des weiteren ein Beitrag zur Debatte über die Auswirkungen
der Handelspolitik auf den Agrarsektor, insbesondere in Entwicklungsländern. Sie
besteht aus zwei Teilen und vier Kapiteln. Im ersten Teil (die ersten beiden Kapitel)
wird der theoretische Rahmen für die Theorie der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit und die
Handelspolitik dargestellt. Im zweiten Teil (das dritte und vierte Kapitel) wird eine
empirische Studie über den Bananenhandel durchgeführt, wobei mit dem „cluster-value
chain Modell“ die Bedingungen der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit analysiert werden. Das
weiteren werden anhand eines „partial equilibrium Modells“ die Auswirkungen der
Handelspolitik auf die Marktanteile von Hersteller- bzw. Exportländern analysiert.
Die theoretische und empirische Analyse der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit stützten folgende
Hypothese: Die Handelspolitik ist lediglich einer von zahlreichen Faktoren, die bei der
Analyse der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit von Bananenexporten in Betracht gezogen werden
müssen.
vii
OVERVIEW

Competitiveness has been considered merely a buzzword by some scholars because of
the lack of consensus over its seemingly catch-all definition. However, policy makers
and business people frequently use it to defend economic performance in international
trade of countries, sectors, firms and/or products. For this reason, another group of
scholars defends its use to capture the failures of the classical trade theory of
comparative advantage. This paper supports the “defenders” by analytically applying
the competitiveness theory to a specific case study: the competitiveness of banana
exports from selected producing/exporting countries to the European Union.
This research is also a contribution to the debate on the effects of trade policies in the
agricultural sector, particularly in developing countries. It consists of four chapters
divided into two analytical parts. The first part (the first and second chapters) includes
the theoretical fundamentals of the competitiveness theory and trade policies. In the
second part (the third and fourth chapters), the empirical study of the banana case is
carried out by using the model of the cluster-value chain to analyze the determinants of
competitiveness. A partial equilibrium model is used to specifically analyze trade
policies’ effects on the market share of producing/exporting countries.
As a consequence of the theoretical and empirical analysis of competitiveness, the
following hypothesis is supported: trade policies are only one of many determinants that
should be taken into account in order to analyze the competitiveness of banana exports.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................... V
ZUSAMMENFASSUNG.................................