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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (26562)	12/17/2007 3:05:39 AM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 220086

Bomba! Bomba! Import tariffs for major agricultural commodities, in particular cereals, vegetable oils and rice, are being slashed in an effort by developed and developing countries to cushion their local markets against rising food inflation. Good. Very good! The didn't listen to us when we told them to cut tariffs! Tariffs slashed as food inflation bites By Javier Blas in London Published: December 16 2007 22:24 \| Last updated: December 16 2007 22:24 Import tariffs for major agricultural commodities, in particular cereals, vegetable oils and rice, are being slashed in an effort by developed and developing countries to cushion their local markets against rising food inflation. The move comes as food inflation, which hit countries over the summer, shows signs of resurgence, with cereal prices rising sharply, boosted by strong demand, in particular from China, and tumbling inventories. Turkey is the latest country to announce a reduction in custom duties, having recently cut its import tariff for wheat from 130 per cent to 8 per cent, for corn from 130 per cent to 35 per cent and scrapped the previous 100 per cent duty for barley. The European Union – the world’s top importer of wheat and one of the largest buyers of soyabean and corn – has also announced that it will set zero import duties for cereals until next June. This follows cuts in countries such as China, Russia, Mexico, Morocco, Azerbaijan, Bosnia, Egypt, Philippines, Taiwan, Bangladesh, India, Nigeria, Azerbaijan, Ghana and Peru. Some have said these will be short-term measures. Ali Arslan Gurkan, head of the commodity market division at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome, said the reduction in the tariffs was the latest sign that policymakers were trying to cope with rising food costs. “Governments are finding it politically inevitable to reduce local food prices and this situation is likely to continue,” Mr Gurkan said. Earlier this year, Morocco cut its wheat import tariff from 130 per cent to 2.5 per cent after suffering a drought that halved its own crop. China has cut its soyabean import tariff from 3 to 1 per cent in an effort to increase local supplies after rising food costs pushed inflation to the highest in 11 years. The reduction has boosted imports and pushed the oilseed crop price to a 34-year record. Russia will cut its import tariff for soya oil and rapeseed oil from 15 per cent to 5 per cent this month while Nigeria is set to slash its rice import tax from 100 per cent to just 2.7 per cent at the beginning of next year. Sorin Vasloban, of the Paris-based cereal trading house Plantureux, said: “The prices of agricultural commodities have stabilised at very high levels and countries need to resort to these measures [cutting tariffs] to control inflation.” However, the reduction in import tariffs has been offset by higher export tariffs – which aim to help keep local markets well supplied – in several key exporting countries. Argentina this month joined the path taken earlier in the year by Russia and Kazakhstan. The tariff cuts will not have an impact on the Doha trade negotiations, as the talks apply to bound tariffs – the legal upper limits – rather than applied duties. The latest tariff cuts come as cereals and soyabean prices climb to new highs propelled by a warning by the US Department of Agriculture early this month that unabated demand from emerging countries is denting inventories dramatically. In Chicago, wheat futures for March 2008 delivery rose to an all-time high of $9.79½ a bushel, just below the summer’s all-time high of $9.61¾. Corn futures for March moved to $4.38¼ a bushel, within a whisker of a 11-year high, while soyabean for January is trading at a 34-year high of $11.54 a bushel.