Quantifying the Missed EU market Access Opportunity for South African frozen Strawberries

Selected South African fruit products exports enter the European Union (EU) market under the preferences policy, which includes tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) embedded in bilateral trade agreements. The rationale for using TRQs is to guarantee and enhance market access. However, unfilled TRQs such as the frozen strawberries TRQ granted to South Africa by the EU characterise implementation inadequacies of negotiated trade outcomes. This paper introduced and analysed the frozen strawberries TRQ as a new sector in the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) database and model to quantify the untapped market access potential of the TRQ. The results show that high tariffs incurred on exports outside the preferential TRQ lead to welfare losses in equivalent variation and quota rents. However, welfare results of simulations on quota expansion and non-tariff measures (NTMs) reduction are positive. Thus, trade policy negotiations should seek to include provisions on NTMs reduction.