New from ERS—September 2004
Fiber and textile
trade: new data product
The WTO’s Uruguay Round Agreement on Textiles
and Clothing mandated the phase-out by 2005 of previously
sanctioned import quotas. A new ERS database provides
access to bilateral trade data (country and regional)
in the fiber-textile sector. The data can illuminate
trade patterns and underpin analysis of potential
changes as the policy environment evolves. (August
27, 2004)
Classifying
U.S. counties
An area's economic and social characteristics
have significant effects on its development and
its need for various types of public programs.
The 2004 County Typology developed by ERS classifies
all U.S. counties using six categories of economic
dependence (e.g., manufacturing) and seven categories
of policy-relevant themes (e.g., education and
employment levels). (August 27, 2004)
Farm
income estimates, 2003
For only the third time in the last decade, the
value of both crop and livestock production increased
in the same year. In 2003, the value of production
for farm commodities rose by $21.2 billion (9.6
percent), while farmers' expenses for inputs to
produce crops and livestock rose by only 3 percent.
(August 25, 2004)
[The forecast for farm sector income in the
current year, 2004, will be updated on November
9].
New
data on biotech patents
The Agricultural Biotechnology Intellectual Property
database provides information on U.S. utility patents
on inventions in biotechnology and other biological
processes used in food and agriculture. Now revised,
it contains more data, and makes it easier to access
the data to conduct custom searches. (August
25, 2004)
Detailing
the EU’s recent CAP reforms
The European Union continued to reform its common
agricultural policy in 2003-04. Centerpiece of the
latest reforms is a single farm payment which separates
government payments from farmers’ production
decisions and thus is less trade-distorting. The
reforms could have unforeseen effects on world and
U.S. trade over the next few years. (August 25,
2004)
Also see the article in Amber
Waves. |
