90 likes | 237 Views
Maritime Transport Costs and Trade. jane.korinek@oecd.org. Why?. As tariffs and excess costs in production have fallen, other costs such as transport have become relatively more important Gravity model : “workhorse” of trade flow models, uses distance as a proxy for trade costs.
E N D
Maritime Transport Costs and Trade jane.korinek@oecd.org
Why? • As tariffs and excess costs in production have fallen, other costs such as transport have become relatively more important • Gravity model : “workhorse” of trade flow models, uses distance as a proxy for trade costs.
New dataset on maritime transport costs • Most comprehensive dataset on maritime transport costs known today • Different data sources for different segments of maritime transport markets (containers, bulk industrial raw materials, bulk agricultural raw materials) • Permits calculation of • transport cost per tonne of merchandise • ad valorem equivalent
Why not more? • Customs data have to be collected by mode of transport and by CIF and FOB • For some countries, these data are not collected • For others, we have not had access to them • In other cases, we have incomplete information about the availability of these data
Shipping to and from developing countries is more expensive than OECD
Impact of MTC on trade in agriculture • A doubling of transport costs ($/T) is associated with a 33-36 % decline in agricultural trade overall • Distance is still significant • The impact of transport costs on trade is increasing over time – by 1.5 percentage points per year
Context: Project on Trade Costs Future work to measure and analyse impact of other trade costs: • Inland transport • Logistics and port-side services • Exchange rate volatility • Importer/exporter margins • Distribution issues