Tariff Rate Quotas are an important though controversial instrument of international
agricultural trade policy. They are meant to provide market access but can be designed to be
as restrictive as import quotas. In the political and academic discussion quota administration
is blamed to cause extra inefficiencies. However little research exists on how different
methods of quota administration compare to each other. This question is approached by an
econometric model for censored panel data which was applied to the EU's tariff rate quotas.
Furthermore this work analyses how tariff rate quotas are governed by WTO rules how they are
applied in practice by the EU and US and how they could be reformed in the ongoing
agricultural trade negotiations.
