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Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to develop a modelling approach that enables the analysis of long-term food security policies. Specifically, the authors explore the effect of China's agricultural domestic support on its agricultural and food market by also considering the impact of incomplete price transmission. Design/methodology/approach - The authors extend the standard Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) modelling framework. First, the authors incorporate incomplete price transmission into the GTAP model by generating tariff-equivalent price transmission elasticities. Second, the authors improve the current representation of China's agricultural domestic support in the GTAP model and the underlying database by considering the production requirements and the trade-distorting effect of different policy instruments. Running a set of simulations, the authors examine first how the incorporation of incomplete price transmission affects the model's results and second how increased agricultural domestic support affects China's agricultural and food market accounting for incomplete price transmission. Findings - Considering incomplete price transmission mitigates the domestic price increases as responses to high international agricultural prices, which also lead to an increase in China's trade deficit and prohibits net food sellers from receiving high prices. In the long term, an increase in China's agricultural domestic support to its World Trade Organisation de minimis commitment level would increase domestic agricultural production and reduce its demand pressure on the international market. Originality/value - This paper contributes to the literature by examining the impact of increased agricultural domestic support on the domestic market while innovatively accounting for incomplete food price transmission. The authors combine econometric estimated price transmission elasticities and an extended GTAP framework to underscore the importance of enhancing the model's ability in accounting for incomplete price transmission when analysing the impact of agricultural policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The antifouling agent tributyltin (TBT) is extremely toxic to some aquatic organisms. The accumulation of hutyltin compounds in the tissues of freshwater mussels from contaminated areas in Ontario was studied in the field with caged mussels (Elliptio complanata). Mussels were placed in four sites for U months, and one site for 6 months, in locations of previous contamination of water and sediments. Additional cages were exposed for 5 months at two of the sites to study the effect of mussel size on accumulation. The mussels were collected at regular intervals for butyltin analysis. After almost one year of exposure at four locations, the TBT contents in tissue of mussels were 9 to 148 ng as Sn/g (wet weight). The results showed that concentrations of TBT in mussels were related to the mussel size and the concentrations of TBT in contaminated aquatic areas, and that concentrations in mussel tissue increased dramatically over winter. The results of the experiment demonstrated that caged mussels are useful for indicating the presence of TBT in aquatic systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]