Trade barriers on EU's agricultural market : are farmers producing maize and the cocoa- & coffee industry in EU protected by tariffs?

Abstract: The purpose and aim for this thesis is to determine if the European Union uses tariffs on cocoa, coffee and maize and the Common Agricultural Policy in such a way that it protects European farmers and workers on behalf of farmers and workers in less developed countries. The aim has been fulfilled both by a theoretical study and by calculations tariff escalation and the effective rate of protection on the three crops. The findings from the study implicate that EU protects farmers and workers inside EU from competition from outside. For cocoa and coffee is the use of tariffs not as common as it is for maize. There exists nevertheless tariff escalation and effective rate of protection for all three crops, but it is not a big as it explains why the export to EU mostly is raw commodities. Probably are there other regulations, so called non-tariff barriers, that is an obstacle for developing countries so export value added coffee and cocoa products to EU. The time frame and the level of the thesis has made it impossible to extend the work to also include non-tariff barriers