The Economic Analysis of GM Crops Impacts on Taiwan's Agriculture

This paper offers a preliminary quantitative assessment of the economic impacts of Taiwan importing GM crops on agricultural sector. For this purpose, a multi-sectoral computable general equilibrium model is used, named TAIwan General Equilibrium Model (TAIGEM). This model is amended by splitting the corn and soybeans into GM and non-GM varieties, and endogenizes the decision of producers and consumers to use GM vs. non-GM corn and soybeans in their intermediate use and consumption, respectively. The GM crops is assumed to have higher factor productivity as compared with conventional crops, then we also concern about the consumers’ acceptance of GM food product and its implication for the labeling policy. This study will focus on the Taiwan agricultural economic aspects of these GM policy issues.