How Export Restrictive Measures Affect Trade of Agricultural Commodities

Information on export restrictive measures was collected from 16 countries for the period 2007 to 2011 or 2012 depending on the country. The data indicate that export measures were applied across the whole spectrum of agricultural and food products, but grains, oilseeds and vegetable oils were particularly targeted. A variety of measures were employed at least one time on at least on product. Export bans were used by most (13) of the countries in the inventory while nine countries used export duties and export quotas were used by eight.

The various measures were often used sequentially or concurrently. The data indicate that in most years, world trade of the commodities of interest rose suggesting that when restrictive measures lowered exports from intervening countries, competitors were able to compensate. For the world rice market, however, export restrictions significantly lowered exports of interfering countries, but other rice suppliers filled the gap as total imports were not affected.