From the Editor

Abstract

Dear Readers, Welcome to the fifth issue of The International Trade Journal (ITJ)’s thirtysixth volume. The articles in this issue focus on the environment and agriculture. The first three articles look at different aspects of the relationship between environmental regulation and international trade, while the final two studies look at trade in agricultural goods. The first article in this issue, by Rexford Abaidoo and Elvis Kwame Agyapong, looks at the relationship between trade openness and environmental sustainability in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using data from 39 African countries between 2001 and 2018, they find that CO2 emissions grew more slowly in countries that were more open to trade. When the regulatory regime and governance were effective, trade openness had an even more favorable effect on CO2 emissions. In contrast, they did not find a strong and consistent relationship between ecological footprints, governance, and trade in these countries. The second article, by Deepti Kohli, discusses how environmental regulation affects intra-industry trade in four heavily polluting industries: pulp and waste paper; lime, cement, and construction materials; iron ore and concentrates; and dyeing and tanning extracts. The author measures the stringency of environmental regulation using energy intensity and argues that when countries impose stringent environmental rules, this will increase costs and lead to lower net exports in the polluting industries. When the country imposing stricter environmental rules is a net exporter of the polluting good, more stringent environmental rules will therefore, increase intra-industry trade. In contrast, more stringent environmental rules will have the opposite effect for countries that are net importers. The empirical results are mostly consistent with the model’s predictions. The third article, by Yasuhiro Takarada, Takeshi Ogawa, and Weijia Dong, looks at how environmental regulation of international transportation affects trade and welfare. The authors present a theoretical model with two countries where international trade between the two results in pollution. They then look at how national pollution quotas in the home country and pollution permit trading affect welfare. The fourth article, by Carlos Arnade and William M. Liefert, looks at import demand for corn in the nine largest importers of corn: China, Colombia,