Modelling World Dairy Trade: The Potential Impact of Officially Supported Export Credits on the Australian Dairy Industry

Rapidly increasing concentration in food manufacturing industries, particularly the merger and acquisition of big dairy companies, has heightened concerns about the exercise of market power in world markets, including dairy. Despite the significant concentration in the international dairy processing sector, previous trade liberalization analysis has all been done in the context of perfect competition and existing trade policy. With evolving trade rules, the impact of non-traditional intervention methods, such as export credit, may become of importance in international dairy markets. In this paper the significance of imperfect competition in analyzing world dairy trade is examined in the context of export subsidies and officially supported export credit