Determinants of the World’s Rice Trade: The Role of Trade Costs

We investigate the impacts of tariff, tariff-rate quota, conformity assessment, and traceability requirements set by the rice importers using panel data of 17 rice exporters exporting to 119 countries in two years 2015 and 2018, using both Ordinary least square (OLS) and Poisson pseudo maximum likelihood (PPLM) methods. Results from our gravity models strongly indicate that tariff and tariff rate quota remain significantly detrimental to the world's rice exporters because these measures place downward pressure on the rice exporters' prices and the importers' import quantity, creating barriers to market participation. Our study also provides strong evidence about the role of origin certificates in allowing rice exporters to gain access to foreign markets. Meanwhile, regulatory standards such as traceability requirements and logistical and distributional requirements imposed by the rice importers are found to be major obstacles to rice importation from less-developed countries. Our study provides insights into tariff and non-tariff barriers existing in the global rice market, which is likely to assist policymakers operating in developing countries to help shape their policies and bolster rice competitiveness.