The role of global trade agreements in global food supply chain and food security
department or school: Applied Science, Faculty of
department or school: Engineering, School of (Okanagan)
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCO
creator: Shaker Ardakani, Elham
issued: 2025-04-28T16:39:03Z
issued: 2025
related degree: Master of Applied Science - MASc
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Global trade agreements (GTAs) have transformed global food supply chains (GFSCs) by facilitating the international flow of food products and reducing barriers such as tariffs and quotas. However, uncertainties in GTAs lead to several challenges, including panic buying and fluctuating demand, transportation delays, expiration of perishable food products, and increased operational costs, all of which threaten the stability and resilience of food supply chains (FSCs). For instance, the termination of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) can result in tariff increases of up to 150% in some products, leading to significant cost surges in cross-border food trade and disrupting supply continuity (Swanson & Granville, 2017). This study investigates the impact of such disruptions and the subsequent effects of panic buying on GFSCs and food security. To address the uncertainty in demand, this research develops a two-stage stochastic programming model to optimize a global multi-product FSC during disruptions, aiming to enhance profitability and resilience. Various products with different shelf lives and transportation modes are incorporated into the model to meet logistical requirements. The model integrates supply and distribution decision-making and considers multiple disruption scenarios. The Monte Carlo simulation is employed to simulate the demand parameter by generating a large number of scenarios based on historical data. The K-means clustering method is then applied to reduce the number of generated scenarios. Moreover, the sample average approximation method is employed to mitigate the large-scale nature of the problem and reduce the computational time. A real-world case study demonstrates the model’s applicability, particularly highlighting the impact of a potential NAFTA termination on the FSC between Canada and the United States. The results demonstrate that terminating NAFTA can reduce profit by up to 41.67% due to unmet demand, leading to food shortag…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/90844
note: The Role of Global Trade Agreements in Global Food Supply Chain and Food Security by Elham Shaker Ardakani B.Sc., Islamic Azad University, 2015 M.Sc., Alzahra University, 2018 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF APPLIED SCIENCE in THE COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Mechanical Engineering) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Okanagan) April 2025 © Elham Shaker Ardakani, 2025 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the College of Graduate Studies for acceptance, a thesis/dissertation entitled: The Role of Global Trade Agreements in Global Food Supply Chain and Food Security submitted by Elham Shaker Ardakani in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Applied Science . Dr. Babak Mohamadpour Tosarkani, School of Engineering Supervisor Dr. Eric Li, Faculty of Management Co-Supervisor Dr. Wouter Bam, School of Engineering Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Hossein Zolfagharinia, Toronto Metropolitan University Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Liwei Wang, School of Engineering University Examiner iii Abstract Global trade agreements (GTAs) have transformed global food supply chains (GFSCs) by facilitating the international flow of food products and reducing barriers such as tariffs and quotas. However, uncertainties in GTAs lead to several challenges, including panic buying and fluctuating demand, transportation delays, expiration of perishable food products, and increased operational costs, all of which threaten the stability and resilience of food supply chains (FSCs). For instance, the termination of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) can result in tariff increases of up to 150% in some products, leading to significant cost surges in cross-border food trade and disrupting supply continuity (Swanson & Granville, 2017). This study investigates the impact of such disruptions and the subsequent effects of panic buying on GFSCs and food security. To ad…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2025-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0448634
language: eng
degree discipline: Mechanical Engineering
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Mohamadpour Tosarkani, Babak
contributor: Li, Eric Ping Hung, 1978-
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/90844