An Empirical Investigation of U.S. Demand for Fresh-Fruit Imports

With increasing fresh-fruit import dependence, it is important for the United States to analyze trends and future trade scenarios, and develop strategies to achieve economic efficiency in the international market. Import demand elasticities are effective for analyzing trends and predicting possible development scenarios for international trade. This study uses a Source-Differentiated Almost Ideal Demand System to estimate elasticities of demand for mangoes and guavas, bananas, avocadoes, and papayas imported from NAFTA, DR-CAFTA, and MERCOSUR; and subsequently employs these elasticity estimates to measure the expected impact of import tariffs on the U.S. imports of fresh fruits from Mexico.