ICAR AIEEA-PG (Master's admission and PG scholarship) · India · National Testing Agency for ICAR
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersWhy countries trade, how trade is measured and regulated, and how an agribusiness actually exports.
In the exams: agricultural economics PhD entrance and fellowship examinations, trade (heavy); agribusiness management PhD entrance and fellowship examinations, international marketing (heavy); agricultural master's entrance examinations, WTO and trade (present)
ICAR AIEEA-PG Group 06 (Agricultural Economics) and Group 19 (Agri-Business Management, Unit IX)
Definitions and one-step facts: absolute vs comparative advantage, H-O statement, WTO founding and principles, AoA pillars and boxes with their percentages, TRIPS and GIs, SPS three sisters, BoP components, exchange-rate terms, APEDA and other promotion bodies, and short numericals (opportunity cost, terms of trade, NPC, RCA).
How our questions for ICAR AIEEA-PG spread across the units of International Agri Trade & Export Management. Difficulty: 56 easy, 44 medium, 3 hard.
| WTO Agreement on Agriculture and its boxes | 19 | |
| TRIPS, TRIMs, SPS and TBT agreements | 19 | |
| Tariffs and non-tariff measures | 12 | |
| Absolute and comparative advantage | 7 | |
| Export promotion organisations | 7 | |
| Balance of payments | 5 | |
| Anti-dumping | 5 | |
| Export procedures and documentation | 5 | |
| Porter's diamond | 4 | |
| Exchange rates | 4 | |
| International marketing mix | 4 | |
| Heckscher-Ohlin factor-endowment theory | 3 | |
| Leontief paradox | 3 | |
| Product life-cycle theory of trade | 3 | |
| Market-entry modes | 3 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
In country A, a tonne of rice needs 2 labour-days and a tonne of wheat 4; in country B, rice needs 6 and wheat 8. Which statement is correct?
A. A has a comparative advantage in rice and B in wheat
Opportunity cost of rice: A = 2/4 = 0.5 t wheat, B = 6/8 = 0.75 t wheat. A's is lower, so A specialises in rice; B's opportunity cost of wheat (8/6 = 1.33 t rice) is lower than A's (4/2 = 2 t rice), so B specialises in wheat. Absolute advantage in both does not rule out gains.
Further reading: Salvatore, International Economics
The gains from trade are conventionally divided into:
A. Gains from exchange and gains from specialisation
Even with production unchanged, trading at world prices raises welfare (exchange gain); moving production towards comparative advantage adds the specialisation gain. The other options mix policy instruments or distributional effects with the concept.
Further reading: Salvatore, International Economics
Country A has 100 units of capital and 50 of labour; country B has 60 units of each. By the physical definition of factor abundance:
B. A is capital-abundant and should export the capital-intensive good
Compare ratios, not totals: K/L is 100/50 = 2 in A and 60/60 = 1 in B, so A is relatively capital-abundant and, under H-O, exports the capital-intensive good.
Further reading: Salvatore, International Economics
Leontief's test used which data?
C. The 1947 input-output table of the United States
Leontief applied his input-output method to the 1947 US table, publishing in 1953. The other data sets are unrelated to his test.
Further reading: Salvatore, International Economics
Tariff escalation refers to:
D. Tariffs that rise with the degree of processing of a product
Low duties on raw materials and higher duties on processed products give processors in importing countries high effective protection and discourage processing in exporting countries. Volume-linked rates describe a TRQ or safeguard.
Further reading: Salvatore, International Economics
In the AoA, market price support for a product is calculated as:
C. (Applied administered price − fixed external reference price) × eligible quantity
Annex 3 uses the 1986-88 fixed external reference price and eligible production. It is not budget spending, nor current world prices, which is why procurement can show large MPS when domestic prices are below world prices.
Further reading: WTO Agreement on Agriculture
A mandatory rule requiring a nutrition information panel on packaged foods, not aimed at a food-safety risk, falls under the:
B. TBT Agreement
The SPS-TBT boundary depends on purpose. Food-safety and pest or disease measures are SPS; other technical regulations such as nutrition labelling, quality and packaging are TBT.
Further reading: WTO TBT Agreement
Which market-entry mode involves the lowest resource commitment and control for a firm?
D. Indirect exporting through a home-country merchant exporter
Indirect exporting leaves foreign marketing to intermediaries: low cost and risk, little control or market learning. Subsidiaries and joint ventures need investment.
Further reading: Cateora et al., International Marketing
In Perlmutter's EPRG framework, a firm that treats each country market as unique and adapts its marketing to each is:
D. Polycentric
Polycentric firms adapt country by country; ethnocentric firms apply home practices; regiocentric firms treat regions as units; geocentric firms see the world as one market with local adaptation where needed.
Further reading: Cateora et al., International Marketing
The International Trade Centre (ITC) in Geneva is:
C. A joint WTO-United Nations agency supporting exporters in developing countries
The ITC, jointly run by the WTO and the UN (through UNCTAD), provides market intelligence and capacity building. Incoterms come from the ICC; HS from the WCO.
Further reading: International Trade Centre
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