Abstract
The debate on the effect of trade liberalization on food security poses solid arguments, both in favor as well as against the issue. This study aims to analyze the linkages between trade liberalization (measured using food import tariff exposure) and food security (measured using nutrition intake) in the case of Indonesia. The national food import tariff is decomposed into district-level import tariff exposure and is analyzed based on sectoral tariffs such as agriculture tariffs and food manufacture import tariffs. The analysis employs panel data of 496 Indonesian districts and postulates an association between trade and food security by using fixed-effect regression. By analyzing the effects of tariff exposure towards food consumption in all districts and grouping the districts into 5 (five) islands, we can contribute to the literature on trade liberalization and food security. First, it is found that import tariff exposure is negatively impacting nutrition intake and each sector has a different effect on each nutrition intake. Furthermore, the impact of manufacturing tariffs on calorie and protein intake is slightly higher than that of agriculture tariffs. Second, it is shown that both sectoral import tariffs’ effects vary across islands in Indonesia. Furthermore, the research is expected to contribute to and become a reference for the government in regulating tariffs and other trade liberalization schemes to support households to be food secure.
Highlights
Global population growth and food growth are almost equal, the disproportion between regions with high food production and population distribution has caused an imbalance in access to nutrition
This study examined the relationship between food security and trade liberalization
Import tariffs in food are negatively associated with calorie and protein consumption, but the effect of trade liberalization—i.e., the effect of agriculture and manufacture sectoral tariff exposure—on food consumption may be minimized if households work in the agriculture and/or manufacturing sectors
Summary
Global population growth and food growth are almost equal, the disproportion between regions with high food production and population distribution has caused an imbalance in access to nutrition. The definition of food security according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is “All people at all times have both physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preference for their active and healthy life”. It is a measure of the availability of food and individuals’ accessibility to food, where accessibility includes affordability. Trade policy countries been governed by the General Agree‐. Policy(GATT)—an among countries has beentreaty—for governed by the General Agree1994, the
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