Rents, “infant industry” and contingent protection policies: gains and losses for Argentina’s biodiesel industry

Nogues, Julio and O'Connor, Ernesto (2020): Rents, “infant industry” and contingent protection policies: gains and losses for Argentina’s biodiesel industry.

Abstract

Abstract Since 2007 and in response to nascent legislation providing subsidies, Argentina’s biodiesel industry started growing fast. The legislation was approved on the target idea that the economy should diversify away from exporting primary products, and shifting to higher processing stages in this case, shifting from soybeans to soybean oil and biodiesel. Initially, responding to these policies clearly tilted towards foreign sales, most of the output was exported. Nevertheless, these export subsidies put investment at risk when the EU imposed antidumping measures. More recently, policies have been tilted towards sales in the domestic market but at the cost of government controlled biodiesel prices. The paper offers estimates of protectionist rents (subsidies) received by the industry from export sales, as well as from sales in the domestic market. We also address the future risks in international markets of continuing with a policy of subsidized exports.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Biodiesel, escalated export taxes, export subsidies, Argentina, European Union, antidumping.
• Subjects: F - International Economics > F1 - Trade > F13 - Trade Policy ; International Trade Organizations; F - International Economics > F1 - Trade > F14 - Empirical Studies of Trade; F - International Economics > F6 - Economic Impacts of Globalization > F61 - Microeconomic Impacts; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q4 - Energy > Q48 - Government Policy

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