More details on DEFRA TAP and GTAP Network and Mr. George Philippidis, Bradford Univeristy - does anyone know him?

Please also see other April messages e.g. Cost of non GM animal feed, information on Genus plc and Promar International (DEFRA are described as an intermediary on the Promar website, http://www.promar-international.com/Content/meetfood.asp).

WikiLeaks - Scroll down

Further information:
Purdue University
GTAP (Global Trade Analysis Project) is a global network of researchers and policy makers conducting quantitative analysis of international policy issues. GTAP's goal is to improve the quality of quantitative analysis of global economic issues within an economy-wide framework. 

The GTAP Network consists of more than 300 researchers and policy analysts on six continents apparently. GTAP (Global Trade Analysis Project) is a global network of researchers and policy makers conducting quantitative analysis of international policy issues. GTAP's goal is to improve the quality of quantitative analysis of global economic issues within an economy-wide framework.

The sponsors represent a wide spectrum of international and regional organizations including the World Bank, World Trade Organization, U.N. Conference on Trade and Development, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Center, and the European Commission. Among the national agencies represented in the Consortium is the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the US International Trade Commission, Japan’s Economic Planning Commission, Australia's Industry Commission, and the Danish Ministry of Business and Industry among others. 


GTAP Model - The standard GTAP Model is a multiregion, multisector, computable general equilibrium model, with perfect competition and constant returns to scale. Bilateral trade is handled via the Armington assumption. The GTAP model was initially documented in the GTAP Book and GTAP Book essential programs. Recent changes in the model structure are documented in various papers. 
https://www.gtap.agecon.purdue.edu/about/getting_started.asp

"More recently, the WTO and the World Bank co-sponsored two conferences on the so-called Millennium Round of Multilateral Trade talks in Geneva. Here, virtually all of the quantitative, global economic analyses were based on the GTAP framework:

    Anderson, Erwidodo, and Ingco, 1999
    Hertel, and Martin 1999
    Anderson, 1999
    Josling and Rae, 1999
    Francois, J., 1999
    Elbehri, A., M. Ingco, T.W. Hertel, K. Pearson, 1999
    Hertel, T.W., K. Anderson, J. F. Francois, and W. Martin, 1999
    van Meijl, H., F. van Tongeren, P. Veenendaal, 1999"

https://www.gtap.agecon.purdue.edu/about/project.asp

"GTAP-based analysis has also assumed considerable prominence in recent meetings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Here, deliberations over policies to limit greenhouse gas emissions have generated demand for GTAP-based assessments of issues ranging from the spill-over effects of domestic policies internationally, to leakage of carbon due to relocation of industry, the effects of mitigation policies on competitiveness and the impact of introducing a new international market for tradable emissions permits. At the June 1999 Expert Meeting of Working Group III in The Hague, four of the key research groups drew on the GTAP Data Base for their analysis of the economic implications of carbon taxes:

    Babiker and Jacoby, 1999
    Bollen, Manders and Timmer, 1999
    Bernstein, Montgomery, and Rutherford 1999
    McKibbin, Ross, Shackelton and Wilcoxen, 1999"

https://www.gtap.agecon.purdue.edu/about/project.asp

GTAP Network: Member Display
Mr. George Philippidis
SENIOR RESEARCHER

Unidad de Economia Agroalimentaria
Centro de Investigacion y Tecnologia Agroalimentar
Avda. Montañana 930
Zaragoza 50059
Spain 

https://www.gtap.agecon.purdue.edu/network/member_display.asp?UserID=614

Same Report

GEORGE PHILIPPIDIS
Aragón Research and Development (ARAID),
Centre for Agro-Food Research and Technology (CITA), Government of Aragón, Spain
http://www2.cita-aragon.es/citarea/bitstream/10532/196/1/10532-80_169.pdf

and DEFRA
http://archive.defra.gov.uk/environment/quality/gm/crops/documents/foodmatters-gtap-modelling-1308.pdf

I would be grateful for some feedback on the following:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/PrintArticle.php?articleId=22404

"In a January 2008 meeting, US and Spain trade officials strategized how to increase acceptance of genetically modified foods in Europe, including inflating food prices on the commodities market, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks.

During the meeting, Secretary of State for International Trade, Pedro Mejia, and Secretary General Alfredo Bonet “noted that commodity price hikes might spur greater liberalization on biotech imports.”

It seems Wall Street traders got the word. By June 2008, food prices had spiked so severely that “The Economist announced that the real price of food had reached its highest level since 1845, the year the magazine first calculated the number,” reports Fred Kaufman in The Food Bubble: How Wall Street starved millions and got away with it.

The unprecedented high in food prices in 2008 caused an additional 250 million people to go hungry, pushing the global number to over a billion.  2008 is also the first year “since such statistics have been kept, that the proportion of the world’s population without enough to eat ratcheted upward,” said Kaufman.

All to boost acceptance of GM foods, and done via a trading scheme on which Wall Street speculators profited enormously.

Mass food riots in several nations ensued, as did an investigation by the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, resulting in a finding that, yes, unrestricted speculation in food commodities caused soaring prices.

In a comment at the end of the cable, the diplomat also revealed a level of pessimism about Spain’s willingness to help force GM foods on Europe:

“This was a very good substantive discussion. However, it is clear that while Spain will continue sometimes to vote in favor of biotechnology liberalization proposals, the Spaniards will tread warily on this issue given their own domestic sensitivities and other equities Spain has in the EU.”

That pessimism was largely unfounded, as “Spain planted 80 percent of all the Bt maize in the EU in 2009 and maintained its record adoption rate of 22 percent from the previous year,” noted a report by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA).

The leaked cables, amounting to over 1,300 right now, reveal US obsession with expanding the biotech market:

One leaked cable confirms US concern with promoting GM foods in Africa, which Richard Brenneman described as “a significant item on the State Department’s agenda.”........
http://www.globalresearch.ca/PrintArticle.php?articleId=22404

http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12775
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/13046-wikileaks-gm-revelations-just-keep-mounting
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12750