The Theory of Political Tariff Protection for Agricultural Sector in Developing Countries

This paper aims to analyze tariff protection policies in the agriculturalsector of developing countries. the agricultural tariffstructure in developing countries is characterized by: i) highaverage tariffs, ii) the existence of tariff escalation, iii) dispersionof nominal tariffs across tariff lines, and iv) a wide gap betweenaverage nominal tariffs and import-weighted average tariffs. consequently,some features can be extracted that are consistent withthe observed patterns of tariff protection in developing countries: i)escalation of nominal tariff rates with the degree of processing, ii)higher average tariffs in the agricultural sector compared toagriculture in developed countries, and iii) higher non-agriculturalthan agricultural tariff protection. here the theory of politicaltariff protection for agricultural sector in developing countries isdescribed. this theory allows us to identify two sets of products.agricultural products for which tariffs are higher than their politicalfitted values, therefore, tariff cuts should occur in a long period oftime and for which tariffs are higher than their political fittedvalues therefore tariff reductions would not be politically costly.