TASTE a program to adapt detailed trade and tariff data to GTAP-related purposes

Mark Horridge and David Laborde Debucquet

No 331745, Conference papers from Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project

Abstract: The GTAP project provides a coherent database to support CGE modelling of international trade and applied tariff changes at a 57-sector level of sectoral detail. Real-world tariff negotiations deal with bound rates, which form a ceiling on applied rates and (for a given exporter/ importer country pair) vary greatly within each of the GTAP sectors. Therefore, to compute applied tariff shocks for GTAP or similar models, we need much more detailed data on trade flows and on bound and applied rates. Such a dataset, MAcMapHS6, includes HS6 level trade data for all trading pairs within 200 countries, together with estimates of applied and bound rates for each trade. It is internally consistent (exports=imports) and agrees with the GTAP dataset. The MAcMapHS6 dataset is an impressive resource -- but presents barriers to entry. It consists of a huge (8 gigabyte) text file, too large to load into Excel or a text editor. To obtain or process this dataset raises technical problems which hitherto have been surmounted only by a few skilled teams from richer countries. To lower these barriers, we present TASTE -- the Tariff Analytical and Simulation Tool for Economists -- which compresses the MAcMapHS6 dataset onto a single CD and allows the ordinary GTAP user to rapidly process the whole dataset. A set of rules about cuts in applied rates (as negotiated in Doha and similar processes) is specified by the user. Using an ordinary PC, TASTE takes 3 or 4 minutes to apply these rules to the 180 million trades described by MAcMapHS6. Resulting changes in applied rates are averaged to a userspecified level of sectoral and regional aggregation and are stored in a format which can be directly used by the standard GTAP model. TASTE does not rely on any other software. TASTE also facilitates other uses of the MAcMapHS6 data. For example, it is easy to make an extract of the data which includes all trades within a GTAP sector. This could be used to prepare a special version of the GTAP model which modelled trade in one or a few GTAP sectors at the HS6 or HS4 level. The extra detail might be important if trade shares or import restrictions varied greatly amongst HS6 groups within a GTAP sector.

Keywords: International Relations/Trade; Research Methods/ Statistical Methods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29
Date: 2008
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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