International trade and agriculture

COUNTRY SELECTED: BOLIVIA
According to the USDA, “U.S. agricultural trade programs are designed to develop and expand commercial outlets for U.S. commodities and agricultural products, provide international food assistance, and offer U.S. consumers with access to a wider variety of foods at reasonable prices, including those not produced domestically. The U.S. has trade arrangements with several nations to facilitate the exchange of ag products. U.S. agriculture looks overseas to boost domestic incomes by expanding existing markets access and opening new markets. The U.S. is the largest exporter of agricultural products in the world and is a highly competitive producer of many products. The U.S. is pursuing trade liberalization through trade negotiations and policies that boost prospects for food and agricultural markets in developing countries which stimulates economic growth and development. With access to growing markets, American producers will have greater opportunities to grow and develop their businesses.”

Assume that you work for the USDA and you are responsible for advising high-level officials on ways to achieve the elements outlined in the Background section above. Suppose the U.S. wants to deepen the dialogue in areas of agricultural trade by identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (S.W.O.T analysis) between itself and an existing or new trading partner. You are assigned the task of writing a paper or report that analyses whether trade 2 potential exists between the U.S. and another country. You must choose a country to include in your research paper

Your research paper should at least include the following sections:
• Introduction. Provide the context so that the reader can understand why you are doing this research paper. In essence, you should introduce your topic; state your rationale or motivation for the paper, i.e. explain why your research is important; state your hypothesis; and highlight your research plan for the remainder of the paper.
• Background. Identify and quantify the main statistics, indicators and sources of information to provide an overview of the trade sector in a succinct manner for the U.S. and your selected country.
• Analysis. Identify the S.W.O.T, the main bottlenecks and the main areas that need to be addressed to improve trade. In addition, the research should examine the trends in trade for the U.S. and the selected country and draw possible implications for future trade and economic cooperation. Issues related to comparative advantage should also be explored. Specific issues to include in this section:
– An assessment of the U.S. performance under current trade agreements and whether opportunities exist for the U.S. to export to other markets.
– How potential changes to global trade policy can affect or open new opportunities to U.S. exports.
– A critical look at non-tariff measures and their impact on the U.S. export performance.
• Conclusion. Taking into account the results of the diagnostic above, provide your recommendations and propose policy actions that can be undertaken by the U.S. authorities.