Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Introduction and Discussion of the Agenda:

The meeting was called to order by Chairman Luis Ribera, Texas A&M University at 09:00 am. The Chair began by asking the group to introduce themselves. He then discussed the agenda for the meeting.

Eric Young: Gave an update on the federal budget, which raises AFRI funding.
He also discussed the formation of the Foundation for Food and Agriculture. The Foundation has a one-time allocation of $200 million, which is expected to be matched. The key focus areas of the Foundation are agricultural productivity and profitability, as well as food and human health. He also discussed the new commodity group matching grant program with AFRI, which allows a recognized commodity group to apply for matching funds to announce an RFA.

Norbert asked about the potential for a change in direction for NIFA priorities with the coming change in administration. Eric described the nonpartisan nature of NIFA, yet acknowledged that they may be some changes in direction, depending on the new administration.

Eric discussed some big picture trade topics: He indicated that a big driver of discussion related to trade includes the actions of China, and to a lesser extent, India’s effects on trade. He also discussed the extension directors’ role in not allowing the National Peanut Board to ban international licensing of intellectual property. Eric also discussed the strengths of interdisciplinary and multistate research, and the group discussed our success through collaborative work that has been pursued as a result of project membership and interaction.

David Bullock and Norbert Wilson: Presentation on the upcoming sub-conference with GMCC15 in the Netherlands on GMOS that is funded through the AFRI grant that was awarded to the group. Norbert described the reasoning for the conference.

Review of Key Points:
* November 17-18 in Amsterdam (suggestion to fly before Nov 15th to save significantly on airfare)
* 10 papers will be presented on topics related to TTIP and GMO-related issues
* Norbert asked for members to serve as reviewers for the papers to be considered for the special issue in the Journal of Food and Industrial Organization

Norbert Wilson: Norbert discussed the end of project report that is passed due, and asked for contributions for inclusion in the report. The group decided to spend time each year, starting with this meeting, to complete our annual or project completion reports.

Luis: New officers were elected. Amanda (leister) Countryman is the new Chair of the group and Karen Lewis is the newly elected Secretary.

Break for lunch

Presentations

David Bullock: Public Transparency in the TTIP Negotiations

Key Points from Presentation
* Trade negotiations have often been closed-door deals
* Transparency vs non-transparency of TTIP negotiations is an important issue
* EU Trade Commissioner has prioritized the transparency of TTIP negotiations
* The desire for transparency exists in both the U.S. and EU
* There are few studies that consider the role of transparency in negotiations
* David and coauthors are in the process of developing a political economy framework to model the effects of transparency in negotiations

Luis Ribera: Follow-up Presentation on the potential increase in trade between the US and Cuba.

Key Points from Presentation
* Trade and tourism are still forbidden (with exceptions)
* Business visas are attainable
* Cuba imports 70-80% of food needs: Cuban government plus new emerging companies allowed to purchase imports for tourism
* Exports, remittances, and tourism are the key sources of earnings for Cuba
* Cuban agricultural imports have increased but U.S. exports to Cuba have decreased since 2000
* Port of Mariel shows opportunities for trade with post-Panamex shipping capacity, and offers high wages for workers
* There are talks of moving to a single currency, private (tourist) restaurants are increasing in number

State Reports:

Lynn Kennedy: Lynn has served as interim department head for the past several months. Research products have included a USDA sugar outlook report with Steven Zahnhaiser at ERS. Lynn has also worked on the two Food Security volumes with Andrew and Troy Smitz. Lynn has also worked with Andy investigating the effects of technology adoption in sugar has affected production. Lynn and Amanda are starting work on an analysis of the evolution of the sugar beet and cane industry over time, given policy and efficiency changes. Lynn also has a PhD student who is finishing up research related to corruption and trade, e-commerce and trade, and internet adoption in countries and trade. He also has three MS students working on research related to trade diversion and expansion given TPP and TTIP passage. Lynn has also begun research considering forestry product trade.

Amanda (Leister) Countryman: Research continues to focus on the potential effects of potential trade policy, including the effects of an exclusionary TPP agreement on agriculture, the effects of TPP on Japanese beef import demand, the effects of TTIP on EU beef import demand. Additional research focuses on the potential poverty effects of the Special Safeguard Mechanism as well as the implications of tariff structure in the presence of the SSM in the World Trade Organization. Finally, she continues to work on issues related to transportation and trade, including the opening of arctic trade routes, as well as potential for invasive species transfer via cargo ships.

Osei Yeboah: North Carolina A&T State University- Osei has three MS students working on and AFRI grant that funds research related to the welfare impacts of country of origin labeling on beef, chicken and pork. Osei is also investing trade creation, trade diversion and market access impacts given implementation of TPP. His PhD student defended a dissertation last week on a project related to trade in Cambodia and the Philippines.

Luis Ribera: Brazilian PhD student working on infrastructure effects on productivity in Brazilian agriculture. He’s also researching water issues related to U.S. and Mexico allocations of surface water. Luis is also working on research related to the effects of U.S. domestic policy on international trade, the Russian import ban on western agricultural products, as well as changes in imports from Mexico into the U.S. given the new Mexican highway that decreases transportation costs of Mexican imports.

Shida Henneberry: Shida manages the Masters of Agriculture program at Oklahoma State Universtiy, which has 72 students. She also teaches trade related classes at OSU. She has worked on a research project through the State Department that trains African researchers. She’s working on a book on the effectiveness of study abroad. She has a project that considers the role of water in food security, and another project on estimating price transmission elasticities. Shida is also mentoring a Fulbright scholar from Pakistan who is working on food security.

Karen Lewis: Karen was hired by the University of Tennessee as a livestock economist, but her current research focus has been on sugar policy and trade. She is currently switching gears to work on livestock issues. Her portfolio includes experimental economics focusing on willingness to pay for hormone beef, and she is also working with colleagues on a distillers grain trade model.

David Bullock: University of Illinois: David hosted a visiting PhD student from Brazil who studied gravity models. He also has a paper with a PhD student on ethanol policy that will be published in JAFIO. Another former PhD student in Norway is working with David on research related to fertilizer. David worked with Norbert to organize the GMCC-15 subconference in Amsterdam. He received a grant from the EU (Jean Monet grant) to work on EU ag trade policy. He’s also the PI on a project with 28 researchers from 6 states to investigate the production and water quality effects of fertilization. He has also helped start the International Network of On Farm Precision Agriculture Research that includes 20 member institutions. The group is running fertilizer experiments together. David has also been working with colleagues on the effects of transparency in TTIP negotiations. He also has a pending publication on safe minimum standards. He’s working on a welfare analysis of the elimination of the beef hormone ban. Finally, he is going to teach a short course in Boku, Vienna on trade distortions.

Adjourn for the Day

Friday, March 27, 2015
Luis reconvened the meeting at 9:00 a.m. and we continued with the agenda.

Luis: Reviewed plans to hold the next S-1062 Project meetings in Charlotte, South Carolina in spring, 2016.

Adjourn

Respectfully submitted,
Amanda (Leister) Countryman