Suchen

Over the last 20 years, China has become the second largest trading partner of Latin America & the Caribbean (LAC). Between 2000 and 2020, China-LAC trade grew 26-fold from USD 12 billion to USD 310 billion. China is also among the top sources of foreign direct investment and finance for the LAC region. The impact of China in LAC is closely related to the Latin American boom in commodities extraction, and infrastructure construction. While traditional commodities continue to be important, trade in ...

Russia is a major global commodity producer and exporter. The country's invasion of Ukraine has already pushed commodity prices to historically high levels, and could also lead to commodity shortages. This situation may cause considerable economic damage, with far-reaching consequences for EU industry.

The price of oil has fallen significantly since June 2014, from a peak of US$115 per barrel (bl) then to US$26 per barrel in January 2016, although it has somewhat recovered recently. This can partly be explained by weaker demand, robust supply growth and the expanding coverage of mandatory energy effciency provisions worldwide. These changes come at a time of major turmoil in parts of the Middle East. Iraq – with the world’s fifth largest oil reserves – is engaged in the fight against ISIL/Da’esh ...

Free trade in raw materials is of great importance for the EU. China remains the EU’s main supplier of critical raw materials and thus concentrates on the most recent evidence on its export restrictions. Despite recent WTO rulings, China is still implementing a wide range of trade distorting measures in the form of export licensing or through the introduction of a resource tax. While we can trace certain welfare benefits for the Chinese domestic market following the introduction of export restrictions ...

The use of biofuels in transport is being promoted as a means of tackling climate change, diversifying energy sources and securing energy supply. Biofuels production also provides new options for using agricultural crops. However, it also gives rise to environmental, social and economic concerns which are the subject of intense debate worldwide. This study provides a detailed overview of biofuels production and consumption and of related policies worldwide. It also contains comprehensive analysis ...

Oil prices have increased considerably over the past years at global level, while natural gas and other energy prices have seen differing developments in each world region. The present report examines the level of impact of high oil prices on European energy prices and analyses the underlying mechanisms. Policy options to reduce this impact are discussed.

Die Marktmaßnahmen im Rahmen der neuen GAP nach 2013 müssen der Landwirtschaft in der EU dazu verhelfen, andere Herausforderungen zu bewältigen, als sie in der Vergangenheit von Bedeutung waren. Aktive Marktmaßnahmen werden gegenüber reaktiven Maßnahmen bevorzugt. Staatlicherseits sollte den privaten Märkten dabei geholfen werden, den Landwirten eine möglichst umfassende Auswahl an Instrumenten zu bieten, und es sollte nur dann eingegriffen werden, wenn diese versagen. Den Schwerpunkt dieses Berichts ...

This note provides an extended analysis on private strategies that could be adopted by farmers to manage their risk and on the role that public policies might play in supporting such strategies, providing a comparison between EU and North American tools. The ultimate objective is the definition of a framework of policy instruments that could be adopted at EU-wide and at MS level to effectively confront the problem of risk and crises management in agriculture.

Agricultural macroeconomic modelling has not yet adapted to the complexity of today’s world and cannot account for observed price volatility. Modelling financialized commodity markets requires a dynamics of anticipations under risk intertwined with economic dynamics, as defined here. Markets volatility doesn’t have one single cause and should be studied within global interconnected markets. Speculation appears as one major factor, together with monetary policy and some other well-known ones. Full ...

Introduction Violent internal conflict inflicts death, disease and displacement upon the mass of ordinary people who are not active participants. It also inflicts large and persistent economic costs, and so is ‘development in reverse’. Finally, it is an illegitimate means of political change whose typical political legacy is deterioration in human rights, and a heightened risk of further violent conflict. Historically, post-conflict situations have had a 40% rate of relapse into civil war within ...