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This paper views the social landscape of biotechnology from the perspective of emerging perceptions and attitudes of consumers to food biotechnology. The information from which consumers' perceptions and attitudes may be discerned comes in several different forms. These include market responses to food biotechnology. Media attention paid to this issue is a second source of information. The attention that is directed toward policy processes and regulatory institutions for food biotechnology, as this is translated through the political system into policy, is another expression of consumers' attitudes. Information from publicly-reported opinion polls and studies of social scientists of attitudes to biotechnology also provides insight on consumers' preceptions. More emphasis is directed at the last two of these expressions of attitudes to food biotechnology in this paper, since at this point of time they are the most readily assess of the various manifestations. Each of the four focal viewpoints of market reactions, media attention, policy processes, and polls and related studies indicates that levels of public and consumer awareness of food biotechnology are increasing. The differences that are seen in the regulation of agricultural biotechnology in different regions of the world suggest that attitudes of different groups of people to biotechnology vary greatly and this is confirmed by opinion polls and related studies. The level of concern about agricultural biotechnology seems to be increasing as public awareness of this new technology increases. Background to this paper is provided through the following overview of divergences in attitudes to food biotechnology, Subsequent discussions move to expressions of increased consumer interest in food biotechnology, differences in approaches to regulation of food biotechnology, the broad features of recent major opinion polls and some studies of consumer's attitudes. The final section of the paper summarises major features of the discussion and suggests some conclusions.

This paper views the social landscape of biotechnology from the perspective of emerging perceptions and attitudes of consumers to food biotechnology. The information from which consumers' perceptions and attitudes may be discerned comes in several different forms. These include market responses to food biotechnology. Media attention paid to this issue is a second source of information. The attention that is directed toward policy processes and regulatory institutions for food biotechnology, as this is translated through the political system into policy, is another expression of consumers' attitudes. Information from publicly-reported opinion polls and studies of social scientists of attitudes to biotechnology also provides insight on consumers' preceptions. More emphasis is directed at the last two of these expressions of attitudes to food biotechnology in this paper, since at this point of time they are the most readily assess of the various manifestations. Each of the four focal viewpoints of market reactions, media attention, policy processes, and polls and related studies indicates that levels of public and consumer awareness of food biotechnology are increasing. The differences that are seen in the regulation of agricultural biotechnology in different regions of the world suggest that attitudes of different groups of people to biotechnology vary greatly and this is confirmed by opinion polls and related studies. The level of concern about agricultural biotechnology seems to be increasing as public awareness of this new technology increases. Background to this paper is provided through the following overview of divergences in attitudes to food biotechnology, Subsequent discussions move to expressions of increased consumer interest in food biotechnology, differences in approaches to regulation of food biotechnology, the broad features of recent major opinion polls and some studies of consumer's attitudes. The final section of the paper summarises major features of the discussion and suggests some conclusions.

As relatively competitive segments of Canadian agriculture for which the dominant markets are domestic consumption and exports to the US, the pork, beef, swine and cattle industries can expect to benefit from the combination of the influence of the US-Canada Free Trade Agreement (FTA) which became effective in January 1989, its extension to Mexico through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in January 1994, and the provisions relating to agriculture within the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (GATT) that will start to apply in 1995. From a North American point of view, these agreements contribute to an improved trading environment for agriculture. From the viewpoint of the rest of the world, this is true in principle for GATT, but not necessarily for NAFTA which, like any other trade bloc, has the potential to divert rather than create agricultural trade with the rest of the world. There seems to be some credence to this viewpoint for beef. The major implications of GATT for agriculture are, in brief overview, for a direct increase in agricultural trade opportunities from the requirement to replace import quotas, levies and other trade distorting measures by bound tariffs and reduce these, allied with the requirement for specified levels of import access. The Agriculture Agreement also provides for restraint in export subsidization; the establishment of clearer and more effective world trading rules; and provision of clearer limits on the use of barriers to trade based on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures. The Canadian red meat sectors potentially should gain from each of these provisions. Specific gains are expected from modest improvements in market access for both pork and beef; reductions in European Union (EU) export subsidization of beef and pork; and clearer and more enforceable world trade rules that may reduce the ability of large trading nations to pursue administrative protection through the application of their national trade policy. Benefits are also expected from the clarification of SPS measures that may apply to trade in animal semen, embryos, livestock, and meats. The largest proportion of Canadian red meat and live animal exports are to the US. In 1993, the US absorbed some 70 percent by value of Canadian pork, hogs and related product exports; Japan accounted for a further 20 percent. The US imports more than 90 percent of Canadian beef and cattle exports. Canadian production of both categories of red meats is relatively small compared to US production levels. The US is, arguably, the world's most powerful trading nation. It is a nation which has actively pursued a concept of fair trade at the expense of free trade (Chase Wilde, Klein and Richter 1990). Thus, from a Canadian perspective, the moves to clarify and strengthen world trading rules may well be the most significant outcome for red meats from both FTA and GATT. The direct effects of GATT on increased market access for red meats include Japan's tariff reductions on beef imports and the lower minimum import prices for pork to be phased in over the implementation period. Improvements in market access for newly industrialized countries are expected. An example is provided by Korea, which will increase its current beef import quota, reduce the state trading agency's consumer markup on beef, and replace these trade barriers by a bound tariff in 2001. The European Union will improve market access by the introduction of a tariff rate quota for pork (including a specific quota for high value products) to replace variable levels. The commitments by the EU to reduce export subsidization of beef and pork from the base of 1986-90 translate to appreciable reductions in the volume of subsidized beef and pork from current levels by year 2000 (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada 1994).

As relatively competitive segments of Canadian agriculture for which the dominant markets are domestic consumption and exports to the US, the pork, beef, swine and cattle industries can expect to benefit from the combination of the influence of the US-Canada Free Trade Agreement (FTA) which became effective in January 1989, its extension to Mexico through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in January 1994, and the provisions relating to agriculture within the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (GATT) that will start to apply in 1995. From a North American point of view, these agreements contribute to an improved trading environment for agriculture. From the viewpoint of the rest of the world, this is true in principle for GATT, but not necessarily for NAFTA which, like any other trade bloc, has the potential to divert rather than create agricultural trade with the rest of the world. There seems to be some credence to this viewpoint for beef. The major implications of GATT for agriculture are, in brief overview, for a direct increase in agricultural trade opportunities from the requirement to replace import quotas, levies and other trade distorting measures by bound tariffs and reduce these, allied with the requirement for specified levels of import access. The Agriculture Agreement also provides for restraint in export subsidization; the establishment of clearer and more effective world trading rules; and provision of clearer limits on the use of barriers to trade based on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures. The Canadian red meat sectors potentially should gain from each of these provisions. Specific gains are expected from modest improvements in market access for both pork and beef; reductions in European Union (EU) export subsidization of beef and pork; and clearer and more enforceable world trade rules that may reduce the ability of large trading nations to pursue administrative protection through the application of their national trade policy. Benefits are also expected from the clarification of SPS measures that may apply to trade in animal semen, embryos, livestock, and meats. The largest proportion of Canadian red meat and live animal exports are to the US. In 1993, the US absorbed some 70 percent by value of Canadian pork, hogs and related product exports; Japan accounted for a further 20 percent. The US imports more than 90 percent of Canadian beef and cattle exports. Canadian production of both categories of red meats is relatively small compared to US production levels. The US is, arguably, the world's most powerful trading nation. It is a nation which has actively pursued a concept of fair trade at the expense of free trade (Chase Wilde, Klein and Richter 1990). Thus, from a Canadian perspective, the moves to clarify and strengthen world trading rules may well be the most significant outcome for red meats from both FTA and GATT. The direct effects of GATT on increased market access for red meats include Japan's tariff reductions on beef imports and the lower minimum import prices for pork to be phased in over the implementation period. Improvements in market access for newly industrialized countries are expected. An example is provided by Korea, which will increase its current beef import quota, reduce the state trading agency's consumer markup on beef, and replace these trade barriers by a bound tariff in 2001. The European Union will improve market access by the introduction of a tariff rate quota for pork (including a specific quota for high value products) to replace variable levels. The commitments by the EU to reduce export subsidization of beef and pork from the base of 1986-90 translate to appreciable reductions in the volume of subsidized beef and pork from current levels by year 2000 (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada 1994).

The objectives of this study are threefold. The first is to document the origins and evolution of Article XI. The second objective is to assess the apparent economic implication of Article XI exemptions and GATT panel decisions regarding the Article for Canadian agriculture, specifically for poultry products. The third purpose of this study is to analyse the economic effects of selected tariffication proposals for change in Article XI provisions to the Canadian egg and poultry industries. Our documentation of the origins and evolution of Article XI shows that this article emerged from the initiatives of US policymakers who attempted to ban quantitative restrictions without violating existing US legislation pertaining to agriculture. However, Article XI was soon found to be inconsistent with the US Agricultural Adjustment Act. To satisfy Section 22 of the Act, the United States requested and obtained a waiver to the provisions of Article XI from the Contracting Parties of the GATT. The exemption clauses of Article XI also became a consideration in some domestic agricultural policies. This was the case for Canada in the development of national supply management programs for eggs and poultry in the 1970s. These programs provided a politically palatable solution to the interprovincial conflicts that had arisen from provincial supply management programs. In effect Article XI justified the existence of supply management and legitimized domestic policies to control supplies and restrict imports. These provided for considerable transfers to producers, as demonstrated by OECD producer- and consumer-subsidy equivalent calculations. However, international concern regarding global distortions in agricultural trade, and the limitations of Article XI, led to this Article, and other agricultural trade issues, being a focal point of the Uruguay Round trade negotiations. While disagreements over export subsidies were the major stumbling block in the agricultural negotiations of the Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations, greater access to markets also held a high profile at the negotiating table. Canada was not able to raise sufficient support for her negotiating strategy of pushing to maintain and strengthen the exemption provisions of Article XI and the outcome of the negotiation included agreement to tariff quantitative import restrictions and other non-tariff restrictions to agricultural trade. This study examines a number of empirical issues related to tariffication and provides some recommendations that relate to methodology of tariff equivalent calculations. These concern the appropriate methodology to calculate tariff equivalence, specifically the definition and level of reference prices, the variability of the measure, and the application of tariff equivalent estimates under imperfect competition in a manner that preserves the level of imports. We conclude that if the objective of tariff equivalence is to identify the magnitude of a non-tariff barrier, the appropriate tariff equivalence methodology will net out tariffs and account for costs of transportation and handling. Another methodological issue concerns the choice of market level of domestic and reference prices for tariffication calculations. If there are competitively determined marketing margins and assuming that the tariff and transportation and associated costs do not vary at the different levels of the marketing chain, the NTB tariff equivalent estimates should be equivalent estimates should be equivalent at the wholesale and farmgate levels. However, statistical tests for Canadian eggs, chicken, and turkey reveal that for these cases the wholesale-based estimates are significantly higher than the farmgate-based estimates. The feature that the implicit import protection is relatively higher at the wholesale level than at the farmgate level suggests that there is a relatively high cost processing and wholesaling sector. Alternatively, the sector may be exerting imperfect market power against consumers. Variability of NTB tariff equivalent estimates over time has been observed and explored at a preliminary level in the study. The tariff equivalent estimates for eggs, chicken, and turkey vary considerably over time as do the individual domestic and external reference price series. The US annual average wholesale price series are not significantly more variable than the Canadian price series. Comparisons of annual average farmgate prices of eggs and turkey, however, indicate that the US price series are more variable than the Canadian price series. US-Canadian exchange rate variability would not have substantially influenced the variability of the tariff equivalent measures during the study period. A complication of tariffication under conditions of imperfect competition, as with the supply-management programs, concerns the non-equivalence of tariffs and quotas under these conditions. Following Moschini and Meilke, import-preserving tariff equivalent measures are calculated to assess the tariffication schedules that would maintain imports rather than allowing these to be squeezed out by prohibitive tariff levels. The value of the import-preserving tariff equivalent measures does pose certain difficulties however, since their calculation depends on assumed elasticities and the deviation from marginal cost pricing. The latter is difficult to estimate. In practice, the application of the tariff-rate quota as adopted in the final negotiations of the Uruguay Round if GATT will apply as a clear and reliable method of ensuring specified levels of imports are maintained. In the final section of the study, in order to analyse the effect of the Canadian poultry industries of the tariffication schedules to be applied by Canada from 1995 to 2000 under the recently-concluded GATT agreement, we assess the extent of protection that these schedules provide. For this analysis, we calculate the \"limit price,\" that is, the maximum domestic price that could be charged to consumers, under the specified levels of tariffs and agreed access conditions. The specified tariffication schedules embody appreciable potential increases in the level of protection afforded these sectors. We conclude that the tariffication schedules for poultry products will have no appreciable impact on these supply-managed sectors during the period to be covered by the agreement.

The objectives of this study are threefold. The first is to document the origins and evolution of Article XI. The second objective is to assess the apparent economic implication of Article XI exemptions and GATT panel decisions regarding the Article for Canadian agriculture, specifically for poultry products. The third purpose of this study is to analyse the economic effects of selected tariffication proposals for change in Article XI provisions to the Canadian egg and poultry industries. Our documentation of the origins and evolution of Article XI shows that this article emerged from the initiatives of US policymakers who attempted to ban quantitative restrictions without violating existing US legislation pertaining to agriculture. However, Article XI was soon found to be inconsistent with the US Agricultural Adjustment Act. To satisfy Section 22 of the Act, the United States requested and obtained a waiver to the provisions of Article XI from the Contracting Parties of the GATT. The exemption clauses of Article XI also became a consideration in some domestic agricultural policies. This was the case for Canada in the development of national supply management programs for eggs and poultry in the 1970s. These programs provided a politically palatable solution to the interprovincial conflicts that had arisen from provincial supply management programs. In effect Article XI justified the existence of supply management and legitimized domestic policies to control supplies and restrict imports. These provided for considerable transfers to producers, as demonstrated by OECD producer- and consumer-subsidy equivalent calculations. However, international concern regarding global distortions in agricultural trade, and the limitations of Article XI, led to this Article, and other agricultural trade issues, being a focal point of the Uruguay Round trade negotiations. While disagreements over export subsidies were the major stumbling block in the agricultural negotiations of the Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations, greater access to markets also held a high profile at the negotiating table. Canada was not able to raise sufficient support for her negotiating strategy of pushing to maintain and strengthen the exemption provisions of Article XI and the outcome of the negotiation included agreement to tariff quantitative import restrictions and other non-tariff restrictions to agricultural trade. This study examines a number of empirical issues related to tariffication and provides some recommendations that relate to methodology of tariff equivalent calculations. These concern the appropriate methodology to calculate tariff equivalence, specifically the definition and level of reference prices, the variability of the measure, and the application of tariff equivalent estimates under imperfect competition in a manner that preserves the level of imports. We conclude that if the objective of tariff equivalence is to identify the magnitude of a non-tariff barrier, the appropriate tariff equivalence methodology will net out tariffs and account for costs of transportation and handling. Another methodological issue concerns the choice of market level of domestic and reference prices for tariffication calculations. If there are competitively determined marketing margins and assuming that the tariff and transportation and associated costs do not vary at the different levels of the marketing chain, the NTB tariff equivalent estimates should be equivalent estimates should be equivalent at the wholesale and farmgate levels. However, statistical tests for Canadian eggs, chicken, and turkey reveal that for these cases the wholesale-based estimates are significantly higher than the farmgate-based estimates. The feature that the implicit import protection is relatively higher at the wholesale level than at the farmgate level suggests that there is a relatively high cost processing and wholesaling sector. Alternatively, the sector may be exerting imperfect market power against consumers. Variability of NTB tariff equivalent estimates over time has been observed and explored at a preliminary level in the study. The tariff equivalent estimates for eggs, chicken, and turkey vary considerably over time as do the individual domestic and external reference price series. The US annual average wholesale price series are not significantly more variable than the Canadian price series. Comparisons of annual average farmgate prices of eggs and turkey, however, indicate that the US price series are more variable than the Canadian price series. US-Canadian exchange rate variability would not have substantially influenced the variability of the tariff equivalent measures during the study period. A complication of tariffication under conditions of imperfect competition, as with the supply-management programs, concerns the non-equivalence of tariffs and quotas under these conditions. Following Moschini and Meilke, import-preserving tariff equivalent measures are calculated to assess the tariffication schedules that would maintain imports rather than allowing these to be squeezed out by prohibitive tariff levels. The value of the import-preserving tariff equivalent measures does pose certain difficulties however, since their calculation depends on assumed elasticities and the deviation from marginal cost pricing. The latter is difficult to estimate. In practice, the application of the tariff-rate quota as adopted in the final negotiations of the Uruguay Round if GATT will apply as a clear and reliable method of ensuring specified levels of imports are maintained. In the final section of the study, in order to analyse the effect of the Canadian poultry industries of the tariffication schedules to be applied by Canada from 1995 to 2000 under the recently-concluded GATT agreement, we assess the extent of protection that these schedules provide. For this analysis, we calculate the \"limit price,\" that is, the maximum domestic price that could be charged to consumers, under the specified levels of tariffs and agreed access conditions. The specified tariffication schedules embody appreciable potential increases in the level of protection afforded these sectors. We conclude that the tariffication schedules for poultry products will have no appreciable impact on these supply-managed sectors during the period to be covered by the agreement.