Food Aid as Surplus Disposal? The WTO, Export Competition Disciplines and the Disposition of Food Aid

The empirical investigation suggests that there exists an endogenous relationship between subsidy/credit shipments and food aid for wheat in the US. The empirical VAR demonstrates a contemporaneous increase in food aid shipments as alternative vents constrict. This result suggests that a trade agreement that disciplines export subsidies and credits may put upward pressure on food aid shipments as agricultural exporters vent the pressure of their domestic surpluses. The empirical results suggest that in the US wheat market the effects are not large. The same phenomenon has been noted in the case of skim milk powder by Margulis; skim milk powder would provide another interesting empirical case, were the data available.Food Security and Poverty,