Selection of Iranian Agricultural Special Products for WTO Join Process and internal policies

Document Type : Research Paper

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Abstract

According to its economy and some criteria such as food security, livelihood security and rural development each country tries to select its special products. Limitations of such special products list lead researchers to sort indicators and select important products. Based on WTO negotiations in Doha round, each country is needed to choose tariff lines for special products. Criteria defined in Uruguay and Doha rounds are general and useable for WTO joined members. This paper presents a methodology for identifying “Special Products” and evaluates indicators measuring the importance of agricultural commodities to meeting the three criteria agreed for designating Special Products (food security, livelihood security and rural development). Average of five years (2006-2011) data, normal sorting and AHP methods are used in this study. The results show that wheat with share 37% in per capita energy consumption is the first special product for Iran. Oil, rice, sugar, and milk with 14%, 9.5%, 8.7%, and 4.5% share in energy supply, are others Iranian agricultural special products, respectively. The result of this study not only useable for WTO joint process but also can be used in policies such as pricing and tariff import rate.

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