Seminar on Global Agricultural Supply Chains under Tariff-rate Quotas

Dr. Sobhan (Sean) Arisian 

La Trobe University, Australia

This seminar will be chaired by A/P Rajesh Piplani.

This study examines the design and administration of TRQ systems from an operations management perspective and analyses their impact on market access, fill rates, and revenue for policymakers. We investigate the two most common TRQ administration methods, namely, licensing and first-come, first-served (FCFS) systems. We characterize the Nash equilibria (NE) of importers' strategies and observe how information delays and lead times can result in under-utilization (i.e., imports being less than the quota limit) in licensing and over-utilization (i.e., imports exceeding the quota limit) in FCFS TRQ systems. We introduce a dual TRQ system and demonstrate its superiority over licensing and FCFS systems. We study the effects of stock-keeping options through customs-bonded warehouses and the choice of logistics channels on arrival patterns and fill rates. We conduct a case study of the United Kingdom and the European Union imported beef market using customs data. Our numerical study provides an explanation for the suboptimality of the current TRQ systems and proposes modifications to transform the existing systems.