Seemingly intractable agricultural trade negotiations may be hastened by the release of the Agricultural Trade Policy Simulation Model (ATPSM), a new UNCTAD/FAO software program for analysing trade policies. In launching the model at an FAO symposium held yesterday in Geneva, Carlos Fortin, UNCTAD’s Deputy Secretary General, called it a significant milestone in providing assistance to developing countries in the area of agricultural trade policy.
Given the increasing complexity of the issues at stake in multilateral trade negotiations, which cover their entire production and trade, developing countries can greatly benefit from the use of ATPSM, particularly those with limited resources to develop a negotiating position. The model is truly global, covering almost every country individually, plus a wide range of commodities. It provides detailed information on a wide range of policies including out-of-quota and within quota tariffs, applied tariffs, import and export quotas, export subsidies and domestic support; it also treats quota rents. The friendly interface allows users to modify model parameters and adapt equations; changes in the various policies can be readily specified by country and commodity and the results generated in a few minutes.
The software is available free of charge on CD-Rom. UNCTAD will also provide training. For this project, UNCTAD has received 110.000£ from the UK Department for International Development.