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Since the beginning of 2017, a paradigm change in international trade policy is observed. While protectionist agendas are on the rise, the EU and Japan signed an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) on 17 July 2018. It is the EU's most ambitious agreement with any Asian state. The study estimates the effect of the EU-Japan EPA for Austria based on qualitative analysis and a structural gravity model. The model predicts small but positive effects of around 0.01% of GDP for Austria. Highest gains are expected for manufactured goods, particularly in the medium- and high-tech sectors. Seit Anfang des Jahres 2017 vollzieht sich in der internationalen Handelspolitik ein Paradigmenwechsel. Während protektionistische Agenden an Fahrt gewinnen, unterzeichneten die EU und Japan am 17. Juli 2018 ein Wirtschaftspartnerschaftsabkommen (EPA). Es ist das ambitionierteste Abkommen der EU mit einem asiatischen Staat. Die Studie schätzt die Effekte des EU-Japan-EPA für Österreich mithilfe von qualitativen Analysen und einem strukturellen Gravitationsmodell ab. Für Österreich wurde ein kleiner, aber positiver Effekt von rund 0,01% des BIP errechnet. Es wird erwartet, dass vor allem der Fertigungsbereich in Mittel- und High-Tech-Sektoren von diesem Abkommen profitieren wird.

The prospective WTO Millennium Round of negotiations will highlight critical economic issues regarding the application and implementation of the WTO rules to international trade in goods and services. In this book, a distinguished group of academic experts considers the agenda and areas of interest for the next Round in light of Seattle, the functions of the WTO and competition policy issues arising from trade liberalization.

The WTO TBT Agreement obliges governments to use international standards as a basis for regulation, yet leaves a degree of flexibility with respect to the choice of standard, and the manner of its use. This interplay between obligation and flexibility has given rise to tension in various fora of the WTO, including in committee work, negotiations and dispute settlement. This paper brings together these three distinct strands of WTO work to illustrate core aspects of the international standards debate at the WTO. In our analysis we first briefly outline the nature of the discipline in the TBT Agreement itself; next, we describe where and how the discussion arises in the WTO; and, finally, explore some implications of governance of international standard setting. We propose that greater regulatory alignment could be achieved through a renewed focus on the procedures of setting international standards (the how), and greater emphasis on robust technical/scientific underpinnings of such standards (the what).

Economic integration in South Asia is governed by India's relations with the other economies of the region and it is also at the helm of all trade facilitation and transit issues of the region. Concessions given by India under SAFTA for LDCs have greatly benefitted Bangladesh and concessions to non-LDC members have applied to its imports from Pakistan. India has given significant concessions to Sri Lanka and Nepal under bilateral trade agreements. In a major breakthrough, Pakistan has granted the Most Favoured Nation status to India in 2011, thereby giving a fresh impetus to the SAFTA process. In this changed scenario, further efforts by India would benefit the regional trade integration process much more than before. This paper examines the ground covered so far by India and the challenges that remain for it to realize the benefits under SAFTA. A number of issues that have already been addressed but need to be dealt with further, including liberalisation of tariffs (including trimming sensitive lists), non tariff barriers, transport and transit barriers and customs reforms.

"Die EU und die USA wollen über eine umfassende Handels- und Investitionspartnerschaft verhandeln. Ziel der 'Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership' (TTIP) ist der Abbau von Zöllen und nichttarifären Handelshemmnissen; dies verspricht deutliche Wohlfahrtsgewinne für beide Seiten. Angesichts düsterer Wachstumsprognosen wäre ein solcher Impuls mehr als willkommen. Doch eine TTIP ist nicht ganz ohne Risiken für den globalen Handel und das multilaterale Handelssystem. Die Gespräche über ein solches Abkommen dürften die Verhandlungskapazitäten von EU und USA zu erheblichen Teilen binden; damit wird die Aufmerksamkeit von der Doha-Runde der Welthandelsorganisation (WTO) abgelenkt. Darüber hinaus könnte die TTIP handelsumlenkende Effekte haben. Anderen Handelspartnern der EU und der USA drohen deshalb Wohlfahrtsverluste. Solche Nebenwirkungen gilt es zu vermeiden. Der Königsweg in der internationalen Handelspolitik muss weiter über die WTO führen. Bilaterale Abkommen sind nur dann sinnvoll, wenn sie einen Zwischenschritt für multilaterale Liberalisierung bilden. Daher sollten sich die transatlantischen Partner parallel zu den TTIP-Verhandlungen weiter für einen Abschluss der Doha-Runde einsetzen. Zudem muss die TTIP so gestaltet werden, dass sie mit WTO-Recht kompatibel ist." (Autorenreferat)

"At the G8 summit in Northern Ireland on June 17, the European Union and the United States kicked off the negotiations for a comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) to reduce tariffs and non-tariff trade barriers. While the expected economic benefits for both sides would be more than welcome in an era of gloomy growth forecasts, a TTIP is not entirely without risks for global trade and the multilateral trading system. The talks could tie up a considerable portion of EU and US negotiating capacity and divert attention from the WTO Doha Round. More broadly, potential trade-diverting effects could function to the detriment of other trading partners. Such side-effects should be avoided. The 'high road' of international trade policy must remain the WTO, with bilateral agreements making sense only as a stepping stone to multilateral liberalisation. Alongside the TTIP talks, the Transatlantic Partners should therefore continue to push for a conclusion of the Doha Round. And the TTIP must be designed to be compatible with WTO rules." (author's abstract)

In this paper I sketch out the rough contours of the challenge faced by the WTO in dealing with non-tariff measures (NTMs) as seen from the economic theories of trade agreements. The key questions for the WTO - the answers to which largely dictate the choice between shallow and deep approaches to integration - appear to be two: (1) Is it the terms-of-trade problem or the commitment problem that WTO member governments seek to solve with their WTO membership?; and (2) Is it market clearing or offshoring/bilateral bargaining that is now the most prominent mechanism for the determination of international prices? I suggest that evidence on the first question points to the terms-of-trade theory and hence toward shallow integration, but that answering the second question may be the key to identifying the best way forward on NTMs for the WTO.

It has become increasingly common to produce goods in a number of geographically dispersed stages linked by international trade. This tendency, known by names such as production fragmentation, processing trade, and vertical specialization, has important implications for the analysis of nontariff measures (NTMs) and trade facilitation. First, different types of NTMs or trade facilitation issues are naturally associated with different stages in the movement of goods. Different price gaps can be assigned to these stages, making it possible to decompose the overall amount of distortion and to prioritize the policies with the largest potential efficiency gains. Second, NTMs may accumulate in long supply chains, implying that their trade-distorting effects are greater for goods produced in a fragmented manner than for goods with simple production processes. There is evidence that trade costs are more important for high technology goods or goods undergoing several stages of processing. Issues with product standards may be particularly important for goods with long supply chains. The link between NTMs and supply chains also has implications for economic development and for the relationship between liberalization in services and goods.

This paper examines how the applied multi-sector computable general equilibrium (CGE) literature has moved into quantification of the impacts of greater market access for services. This includes discussion of multisector linkages to the service sector, as well both measuring barriers to trade and investment (generally with a mix of firm surveys, price comparisons, and econometrics), and how changes in these barriers, however measured, have been implemented in the CGE literature. Three challenges are highlighted. The first is identification of how trade in services takes place and how market access is therefore affected by policy. The second is to find data sufficiently robust for modeling purposes. The third, linked to the data problem, is to quantify the barriers to be examined. Significant progress has been made in modeling foreign direct investment and linking this to productivity, which turns out to be important. The paper also provides an example of modeling productivity linkages to openness and domestic regulation, with an applied CGE model of Italy. This illustrates cross-sector linkages and the integration of economic data and policy measures to define service sector experiments. Priorities for future research include better modeling of market structure, the linkages between sectors and the complementarities between different modes of supplying services.

Trade policy barriers are only one element of overall trade costs. Among these, and due to the decrease in the influence of tariff barriers on trade over time, institutional barriers might increase in relative importance and become a key obstacle to the movements of goods across countries. This paper quantifies and compares the impact that a number of trade facilitation and trade policy barriers have on bilateral trade flows. A theoretically justified gravity model of trade is estimated by using the methodology proposed in Baier and Bergstrand (Bonus vetus OLS: A simple method for approximating international trade-cost effects using the gravity equation, 2009) for a cross-section of countries in the year 2000. Results indicate that institutional trade barriers have a greater impact on trade flows than tariff barriers. According to these findings, trade policy negotiation efforts should focus on facilitating trade processes and should be at the forefront of multilateral negotiations.

The paper aims at assessing the specific impact of shallow versus deep integration between Mediterranean (MED) countries1 and their partners in the European Union (EU) as well as between the MED countries themselves. It relies on dataset developed for this project concerning tariffs (as a proxy for shallow integration) and Non Tariff Measures (NTMs)2 (as a proxy for deep integration). Additional data are also included in order to take into account other trade costs, especially transport costs and logistics costs. In this regard, an original dataset of maritime freight cost (Maersk, 2007) is introduced as well as the trade logistics performance (TLP) index produced by the World Bank. Such datasets are useful for providing additional insight into deep integration. The paper starts by calculating the magnitude of NTMs in terms of ad valorem tariff equivalent (AVEs). The estimation of NTMs through ad valorem equivalents (AVEs) shows that Algeria and Jordan have the highest value of AVEs, whereas Tunisia, Morocco, and Egypt have the lowest value. A gravity model is then estimated with special emphasis on trade costs which are the crucial point in our research study. Given the limitation of data on NTMs, the gravity model is estimated for only one year (2001), and for each MED country. Trade costs are represented by tariffs, AVEs of NTMs, and transport and logistics costs. The idea is to test which of the three elements of trade costs are the most impeding to bilateral trade between MED countries and EU countries as well as amongst MED countries. The model shows that tariffs, NTMs, and trade and logistics costs have a significant impact on trade, but is highly vivid in countries suffering from high tariff rates, prevalence of NTMs, and trade costs. A number of simulations are carried out trying to differentiate between the impact of partial liberalization and full liberalization on trade creation. The results obtained show that full liberalization has a significant effect whether it is only related to shallow integration (tariff removal) or deep integration (NTMs and trade and logistics). The effect is higher if trade costs and logistics are improved. The results are far less if only partial liberalization takes place and in several countries is insignificant implying that marginal reductions in NTMs or tariffs cannot always help to create trade. Finally the study shows that there is a huge potential for enhancing trade amongst MED countries if trade costs are lowered, logistics is improved, and NTMs are abolished.

Die Theorie der Außenwirtschaft postuliert eine Effizienzsteigerung durch Spezialisierung, wenn freier Handel zwischen ehemals autarken Ländern möglich wird. Dieses Papier wendet das Heckscher-Ohlin Modell auf dieses Problemfeld an und analysiert die Fähigkeit der Spezialisierung im Gesundheitswesen. Die beteiligten Länder stellen sich durch einen Ausbau der Versorgungsmöglichkeiten besser. Allerdings werden diese Handelsgewinne durch Transportkosten, eingeschränkte Mobilitäten sowie unflexiblen Preisen reduziert. Die Folge ist eine eingeschränkte Verlagerungs- und Spezialisierungsfähigkeit von Gesundheitsleistungen was die Notwendigkeit einer verstärkt autarken Versorgung erzeugt. Um Effizienzgewinne in einem höheren Maße realisieren zu können, ist eine Reduzierung von Handelshemnissen erforderlich, wobei das tatsächliche Potential in Frage steht.

The sharp decline in trade volume and value during the current economic crisis has contributed to lower transportation costs and reduced waiting times at border crossings, reducing the urgency of progress on trade facilitation. Meanwhile, greater trade is expected to play a key role in recovery, and in sustaining growth afterwards. The crisis offers an excellent opportunity to make progress on facilitating intra-Asian trade and boosting the region's contribution to global economic recovery. This paper examines the status of, and challenges to, trade facilitation among the Asian Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation members, and the roles of hard and soft infrastructure (including logistics) in improving that performance. Analysis with a computable general equilibrium framework indicates that even a relatively modest reduction in trade costs can yield significant gains. Gross domestic product in the region expands and countries move into a more diversified trading pattern. Of particular relevance for policy considerations is that the results vary considerably across bilateral trade routes and commodity categories.

The aim of this study is to estimate the impact of the removal of NTBs in trade between the EU and its selected CIS partners: Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan (CIS5). The report includes a discussion of methodologies of measurement of non-tariff barriers and the impact of their removal, including a review of previous studies focusing on CEE and CIS regions. Further, we employ a computable general equilibrium model encompassing the following three pillars of trade facilitation: legislative and regulatory approximation, reform of customs rules and procedures and liberalization of the access of foreign providers of services. We conclude that a reduction of NTBs and improved access to the EU market would bring significant benefits to the CIS5 countries in terms of welfare gains, GDP growth, increases in real wages and expansion of international trade. The possible welfare implications of deep integration with the EU range from 5.8% of GDP in Ukraine to sizeable expected gains in Armenia (3.1%), Russia (2.8%), Azerbaijan (1.8%) and Georgia (1.7%).

Institutional harmonization is an important part of European integration, and its effects are more far reaching than the effects of trade liberalization. In its policy towards neighbors (the European Neighborhood Policy, ENP), the EU puts a lot of stress on the desirability of institutional harmonization, at least in certain areas. In particular, the free trade agreements that the EU envisages concluding with its Eastern neighbors will involve substantial harmonization of product standards, competition policy and a range of other policies and processes. At the very least, the harmonization will have to focus on the areas that relate to improvement of market access, i.e. removing restrictions to trade, harmonizing product standards and the systems of quality control etc. But in order to implement the new standards and rules, the EU neighbors will have to reform many related areas, so that the harmonization will encompass the whole system of economic governance. Not only will such a revamp help attaining better access to the EU markets, but also (and probably more importantly) it will stimulate modernization of the neighbors economies and bring much needed efficiency gains. In measurement of benefits of harmonization we refer to two methods: one based on the computable general equilibrium (CGE) modeling of welfare effects of better market access, and the other employing a growth model to estimate the wider effects of European institutions on growth. The estimation of costs of harmonization bases on extrapolation of the analogous costs in other countries, in particular CEE. These costs include expenses by a public sector on introduction of harmonization measures, as well as private sector expenses and investments related to their implementation.

This paper studies the importance of intangible barriers to trade in explaining variation in disaggregate international trade. The analysis is based on a sample of 55 countries for the year 2000. We explicitly focus on the importance of institutional and cultural dimensions of distance. Our results reveal there is substantial heterogeneity in the impact of intangible barriers for different product groups. More specifically, we find that cultural differences do not affect total trade significantly, whereas trade in homogeneous goods is significantly negatively affected. A possible explanation for this pattern is that the substitution effect between trade and FDI is stronger for more differentiated products.

Im Regelwerk des „General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade“ (GATT) werden seit langer Zeit nichttarifäre Handelshemmnisse bei gleichem Außenschutz als wesentlich problematischere handelspolitische Instrumente angesehen als tarifäre Handelshemmnisse. Ein bedeutender Grund ist, dass die Handelswirkungen von nichttarifären Handelshemmnissen weniger transparent sind als die von Zöllen. Somit war folgerichtig, dass im Rahmen der Agrarhandelsliberalisierung in der Uruguay-Runde des GATT die Tarifizierung, d. h. die Umwandlung von nichttarifären Handelsbeschränkungen in Zölle, festgelegt wurde. Die OECD hat dennoch mehrfach gefolgert, dass nichttarifäre Handelshemmnisse in der Folge dieses Beschlusses im Agrarsektor abgenommen haben. Diese Folgerung ist allerdings sehr problematisch. Zollkontingente, die seit 1994 in erheblichem Maße zugenommen haben, werden trotz ihrer quotenähnlichen Wirkungen formalrechtlich als tarifäre und nicht als nichttarifäre Handelshemmnisse aufgefasst. Außerdem zeigen die Meldungen von Maßnahmen unter dem neuen SPS-Abkommen, dass sanitäre und phytosanitäre Maßnahmen (SPS-Maßnahmen) als Handelsbeschränkungen deutlich zunehmen. Zu den Wirkungen dieser SPS-Maßnahmen liegen noch sehr wenige empirische Untersuchungen vor. In diesem Beitrag werden Meldungen über SPS-Maßnahmen bei der WTO herangezogen, um Handelswirkungen von sanitären und phytosanitären Handelsbeschränkungen zu messen. Die WTO-Datenbank der SPS-Meldungen wird erläutert. Es wird dann ein Gravitationsmodell verwendet, um für das Beispiel des EU-Rindfleischhandels zu untersuchen, wie im Zeitraum Januar 1995 bis Juni 2001 die im Zusammenhang mit BSE eingeführten SPS-Maßnahmen von Nicht-EU-Mitgliedern gegenüber der EU den bilateralen Handel beeinflusst haben. 31 potenziell betroffene Produktgruppen werden unterschieden, und mit einem Fixed-Effects-Ansatz werden die Paneldaten ausgewertet. Es zeigt sich, dass SPS-Maßnahmen im Zusammenhang mit BSE die Rindfleischexporte der EU in den wichtigsten Produktkategorien reduziert haben. Sie wirkten allerdings nicht wie ein Handelsverbot – der prozentuale Erlösrückgang lag unter 100 % und betrug z. B. 49 % bei lebenden Rindern, 74 % bei frischem und gekühltem Fleisch und 86 % bei gefrorenem Fleisch. Da in einer ganzen Reihe von Produktgruppen die Exporte von Rindern, Rindfleisch und verwandten Produkten um deutlich weniger als 100 % sanken, ist offenbar der beantragte SPS-Handelseingriff deutlich stärker als die vom Importland umgesetzte Handelsbeschränkung. In künftigen Studien zum SPS-Abkommen muss daher zwischen SPS-Meldungen und SPS-Maßnahmen unterschieden werden. For decades, nontariff trade barriers (NTBs) have been regarded as more problematic policy instruments than tariffs in international trade negotiations. This is due to the fact that trade impacts of nontariff trade barriers are less transparent than those of tariffs. Tariffication of nontariff agricultural trade barriers was finally decided under the Uruguay Round of GATT. Although the OECD concluded that a reduction of NTBs took place after 1994, this finding can be challenged. First, tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) are not counted as NTBs by law although they cause effects similar to those of quotas. The number of TRQs has increased strongly after the Uruguay Round. Second, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, i.e. SPS measures, have become more important as notifications under the SPS Agreement do show. There are only few empirical studies available which analyze the effects of these SPS measures. WTO Notifications under the SPS Agreement are utilized in this contribution for measuring trade impacts of sanitary and phytosanitary trade barriers. We explain the WTO data base on SPS notifications. Then, a gravitation model is applied to the EU beef trade in the period January 1995 to June 2001. It is investigated how SPS measures, introduced by non-EU countries in the context of BSE, affected bilateral trade with the EU. We distinguish between 31 product groups which might be affected, and a fixed-effects model is used for analyzing the panel data. We elaborate that SPS measures related to BSE reduced EU beef export revenues in the major product categories significantly. The NTBs did not reduce exports to zero, however, as might have been expected. The percentage reduction of export revenues was 49 % for live cattle, 74 % for fresh and cooled beef and 86 % for frozen beef. For most other product groups, the percentage decline in sales was significant but lower in percentage terms. Apparently, SPS notifications indicate that bilateral trade is restricted but it does not definitely show that the notified measures by the importing country are actually implemented and for which time period. It seems very important in future analyses of the SPS measures to distinguish carefully between SPS notifications and SPS measures.

Mit dem Abkommen über die Regelung zur Anwendung sanitärer und phytosanitärer Handelsmaßnahmen wurde der zunehmenden Bedeutung dieser besonderen Gruppe der Maßnahmen im internationalen Handelsverkehr Rechnung getragen. Mit der abnehmenden Bedeutung der tarifären Handelsbeschränkungen hat die Bedeutung der sanitären und phytosanitären Handelshemmnisse zugenommen. Die Quantifizierung der Wirkungen von sanitären und phytosanitären Maßnahmen ist wichtig bei der Beurteilung, ob die Maßnahmen den WTO-Regeln entsprechen. Eine vielversprechende Methode bei dieser Fragestellung sind Gravitationsmodelle. Durch das seit dem 01.01.1995 in Kraft getretene SPS-Abkommen der WTO und die Verpflichtung zur Veröffentlichung von SPS-Meldungen ist die Transparenz über sanitäre und phytosanitäre Handelsbeschränkungen deutlich gestiegen. Im Zusammenhang mit BSE und MKS ist es zu zahlreichen sanitären und phytosanitären Handelsmaßnahmen durch die einzelnen WTO-Mitglieder gegenüber der EU gekommen. Die zugehörigen SPS-Meldungen bildeten die Datenbasis für die hier vorgestellte Analyse mittels eines Gravitationsmodells. Die vorgestellten Schätzergebnisse der verschiedenen Schätzansätze sind mit denen des klassischen Gravitationsansatzes nicht direkt vergleichbar. Zum einen wird nur ein einzelnes Exportland – die EU – in seinen Außenhandelsströmen mit vielen Importländern betrachtet und dies über einen vergleichsweise sehr langen Zeitraum. Zum anderen ist der im vorliegenden Gravitationsmodell verwendete Datensatz nicht der klassische aggregierte Außenhandelsstrom, sondern der bilaterale Handelsstrom bei Rindfleischprodukten. Die hier durchgeführte quantitative Analyse des bilateralen Handels betrifft in erster Linie diejenigen Produkte, bei denen man nach den WTO-Dokumenten davon ausgehen muss, dass sie durch BSE-Handelseffekte betroffen wurden. Die Schätzungen der bilateralen Außenhandelsströme durch ein Modell mit fixen Effekten unter Berücksichtigung von länderpaarspezifischen Trends erscheinen äußerst zuverlässig: Die korrigierten Bestimmtheitsmaße sind vergleichsweise hoch und liegen in den Einzelgleichungen zwischen 0,64 und 0,83. Um der Autokorrelation in der für ein Panel vergleichsweise langen Zeitreihe Rechnung zu tragen, wurde diese in den individuellen Schätzungen herausgerechnet. Die Schätzungen zeigen bei den direkt mit Rindern, Rindfleisch und seinen Verarbeitungsprodukten in Verbindung zu bringenden Produktgruppen signifikante Effekte im Handelswert. So sinkt der Handelswert der EU-Exporte in die ausgewählten Importländer bei lebenden Rindern um 49 %. Bei den international wichtigeren Handelsgütern Rindfleisch, frisch, gekühlt und gefroren sinkt der Handelswert sogar zwischen 74 und 86 %. Es zeigt sich demnach, dass den Ankündigungen aus den SPS-Meldungen, die über die WTO veröffentlicht wurden, erhebliche Handelseffekte folgten. Dass jedoch der Handelseffekt deutlich geringer ausfällt, als bei einer vollständigen Umsetzung aller in den SPS-Meldungen genannten Maßnahmen zu erwarten gewesen wäre, lässt den Schluss zu, dass das Instrument der SPS-Meldungen entweder aufgrund der kurzen Biografie noch nicht richtig genutzt wird oder „vorsorglich“ bei einer potenziellen Gefährdung auch für zu breite Produktgruppen handelspolitische Beschränkungen beschlossen werden. Diese werden dann möglicherweise später nicht oder nur teilweise genutzt. Aufgrund der hier dargestellten zahlreichen guten Ergebnisse sind SPS-Meldungen für die Zukunft als eine vielversprechende Quelle zur Ermittlung der tatsächlichen Handelseffekte von SPS-Maßnahmen anzusehen. Dabei ist jedoch der Analyseaufwand sehr groß, da die Meldeformulare wenig standardisiert sind und die Meldetätigkeit uneinheitlich erfolgt und oft unpräzise ist im Hinblick auf betroffene Produkte und die Dauer von SPS-Maßnahmen. Obwohl statistisch signifikante Effekte von BSE-bezogenen SPS-Meldungen auf den Rindfleischhandel ermittelt werden konnten, dürfen SPS-Meldungen und SPSMaßnahmen nicht gleichgesetzt werden. Die dargestellten ökonometrischen Ergebnisse und die Eigenheiten des WTO-Meldesystems legen nahe, dass nur unzureichende Rückschlüsse von SPS-Meldungen auf Art und Dauer von SPS-Maßnahmen möglich sind. Das tatsächliche Wissen über SPS-Maßnahmen in der Agrarhandelspolitik kann nur verbessert werden, indem das Meldeverfahren stärker standardisiert und die betroffenen Produktgruppen über international anerkannte Klassifikationen präzise benannt werden.

Trade economists traditionally study the effect of lower variable trade costs. While increasingly important politically, technical barriers to trade (TBTs) have received less attention. Viewing TBTs as fixed regulatory costs related to the entry into export markets, we use a model with heterogeneous firms, trade in differentiated goods, and variable external economies of scale to sort out the rich interactions between TBT reform, input diversity, firm-level productivity, and aggregate productivity. We calibrate the model for 14 industries in order to clarify the theoretical ambiguities. Overall, our results tend to suggest beneficial effects of TBT reform but also reveal interesting sectoral variation.

The purpose of this paper is to measure and analyse how intensively CIS countries apply nontariff barriers (NTBs) to restrict foreign trade in regard to certain products and total trade. Five CIS countries were selected for this analysis, in particular Ukraine, Russian Federation, Moldova, Belarus, and the Kyrgyz Republic. We first consider measurement methods usually applied to NTBs, review other studies measuring NTBs in CIS countries, and then describe our own findings on the matter. This analysis was made in the framework of the EU Eastern Neighbourhood: Economic Potential and Future Development (ENEPO) project seeking to examine different aspects of the European Union's relations with its neighbours to the East.

While tariff and quota barriers in agricultural, food and manufactured products have been declining due to the proliferation of multilateral trade agreements, there is increasing debate regarding the impact of product and process standards and technical regulations, since they may have become a subtler form of protection. One of the possible effects of increasing standards in developing countries is that it may affect the size of the exporting sector, with adverse effects on labor markets. We test such effect for the case of Argentina using firm level data for the manufacturing sector. We find evidence of a reduction in export shares due to an increase in standard stringency. Moreover, there is an increase in the skill ratio for exporting firms. The overall effect of standard stringency on average wages of exporting firms is negative, supporting the idea that lower net producer prices, due to a higher cost of standard compliance, are passed on to workers.

This paper aims to analyse the effect of trade facilitation on sectoral trade flows. We use data from the World Bank's Doing Business Database on the fees associated with completing the procedures to export or import goods in a country, on the number of documents needed and on the required time to complete all the administrative procedures to import and export. An augmented gravity equation is estimated for 13 exporters and 167 importers using a number of estimation techniques, namely OLS, PPML and the Harvey model. A common result is that trade flows increase by lowering transport costs and the number of days required to trade. The outcome supports multilateral initiatives, as that in the WTO, which encourages countries to assess their trade facilitation needs and priorities and to improve them. The measures adopted will not only benefit the country that improves trade facilitation, but also its trading partners.

This paper studies costs and benefits of institutional harmonisation in the context of EU relations with its neighbors. The purpose of this paper is to outline the likely forms of institutional harmonisation between the EU and its Eastern neighbors and provide an overview of the methodologies that can be used in measuring its effects (costs and benefits). This paper serves as a background for two measurement exercises - one on benefits and another on costs - that are to be undertaken during the second stage of research.

Nontariff measures are everywhere vilified for preventing exports, especially of agriculture, from developing countries. Philippine exporters seem to be taking things in stride, however. The paper estimates the cost of certification regularly borne by a typical Philippine food exporter to be less than three percent of sales, a relatively inconsequential ratio. However, increased cost from NTMs can adversely affect the small-scale companies that lack resources to adapt their production processes to foreign standards. The paper also traces the Philippine export products affected by nontariff measures imposed by the European Union. In all, NTMs of the EU affect a total of US$34 million of Philippine agriculture and fish exports to these markets, representing almost seven percent of agriculture exports to the twenty-five countries.

Using a bilateral trade equation derived from a monopolistic competition model, we investigated market access reciprocity in food trade among the US, Canada, the EU and Japan. We explore country and industry-specific market access asymmetry through the border effect approach, re-challenging the underlying main explanations. Our findings reveal marked asymmetry in reciprocal trade openness; indeed, access to the food markets of the US and Japan appears significantly easier than reciprocal access to both Canada and, especially, the EU. Policy trade barriers, firstly in the firms of NTBs, the degree of product differentiation and `home bias?in preferences, are all important factors in explaining border effects. Moreover, several stylized facts suggest that border effect interpretation should also be based on political economy arguments.

Including contributions from such figures as Douglas Irwin, James Foreman-Peck, Kevin O'Rourke and Max-Stefan-Schulze, this key book summarizes the recent empirical research carried out on the issue of the classical period of trade protectionism. It provides a basis for revising widely held views on the standard effects of tariffs on economic structures and progress, as well as a historical perspective on recent developments. Long-held views on modern trade policies have been challenged by the introduction of recent theoretical developments in international economics and in measurement techniques brought about in the 1960s and 70s. One question in particular has attracted attention and has contributed to the bringing to light of a number of previously ignored measurement and interpretation problems: the assessment of French and British nineteenth century trade policies. This noteworthy volume examines the theoretical and practical problems associated with the assessment and measurement of the direct impact of tariffs, prohibitions and quotas on domestic prices, output structure and competitiveness. The contributors also examine the direct and long-run consequences of protectionist measures on particular economies, utilizing evidence from in-depth investigations of trade statistics as well as 'best practice' statistical techniques such as effective protection, elasticity of demand and revealed comparative advantage.

We develop a mixed complementarity programming (MCP) based estimating framework for non-tariff barriers (NTBs) to examine the evolution of market access conditions in the textile and clothing sectors, working with a panel of bilateral trade data on textile and clothing trade, underlying bilateral tariffs, and the country-pair coverage of quotas under the WTO's Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC). Our estimating framework takes advantage of the panel nature of trade data when calculating export tax equivalents while allowing for inequality constraints on the quota premium estimates. We also introduce Gaussian quadrature for estimating goodness of fit for regression-based NTB measures based on residual fitting.

Trade costs are often cited as an important determinant of the volume of trade. This paper provides enough evidences to ascertain that today's trade issues in Northeast Asia go beyond the traditional mechanisms of tariffs, and include behind-the-border issues. By estimating a modified gravity equation, controlling for endogeneity and remoteness, we find that variations in transaction costs along with trade infrastructure facilities have significant influence on regional trade flows in Northeast Asia. On average, 10 percent saving in transaction costs increases imports by about 5 percent in Northeast Asia. This paper concludes that when tariffs tend to become low in Northeast Asia, the economies in this region could potentially benefit substantially from higher trade provided trade costs are well controlled.

The paper describes the environment under which RP-US agricultural trade currently operates. It also highlights key issues affecting current trade flows between the Philippines and the US, and provides background information vital for future bilateral agricultural negotiations with the U.S. Further to this, it shows that two major factors will determine the prospective net effects of a RP-US FTA on Philippine agriculture. First, the effects on exports will depend on the extent of US reduction of NTBs, particularly on mangoes, carrageenan, and canned tuna. Second, Philippine imports from the US will depend on its willingness to reconsider position, particularly on rice and corn. On this count, it must be noted that rice is an important wage good, and corn is a key livestock feed ingredient. Moreover, the advent of an FTA with the US should be a good reason to get Philippine agriculture better organized, in terms of policy and institutional support.

Free Trade has always been highly contested, but both the arguments about it and the treaties that regulate it have changed dramatically since the Second World War. Under the 1947 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) regime, objections to free trade were essentially economic, and tariffs were a nation state's primary means of protecting its interests. However, by the early 1970s, tariffs had been substantially reduced, and the imposition and removal of non-tariff barriers that reflected a wide range of domestic concerns about the protection of health, safety, and the environment have since come to dominate trade agreements and their implementation. The expanding scope of these international treaties, and their effect on domestic regulatory objectives, has created new challenges for the nationstate, and for the international trade system as a whole. Domestic regulatory objectives that are generally embedded in a nation state's legal system or even in its constitution, are now negotiable and are susceptible to adjudication at the international level where they may, or may not, be used to camouflage unrelated economic interests. The international trade system adapted to this situation in 1994 by transforming the GATT into the World Trade Organization (WTO), which has more effective means for dispute resolution and includes a number of special agreements - such as the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) and the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) - with rules for balancing the economic concerns of free trade with the social concerns of regulatory objectives. These developments have generated legal queries about the general legitimacy of transnational governance arrangements and their "constitutionalization", i.e. the quest for transnational governance that is mediated by law and not only accepted de facto but considered deserving of acceptance.

Numerical simulation exercises to analyze the impacts of potential changes in non-tariff policies commonly use ad valorem equivalent tariff treatment even though estimated impacts using explicit model representation and ad valorem equivalent treatments will differ. The difficulty for modellers is that the detail and subtlety embodied in a wide array of policy interventions means that some simplification is appealing, but no meaningful general propositions exist in the theoretical literature as to the sign or size of the differences in predicted effects. All that can seemingly be done is to investigate the differences case by case, but even here the findings are sensitive both to the particular form of model used as well as the model parameterization employed. As a result, there is relatively little in the literature that provides guidance as to how serious the pitfalls may be, and how misleading ad valorem tariff equivalent treatment is. Here I draw on three examples of numerical modelling where explicit representation of policy interventions are used. The picture that emerges is one of large quantitative and even qualitative differences in predicted impacts. These examples suggest that where interventions differ from a tariff, ad valorem representation should be undertaken in numerical trade modelling only with substantial caveats.

We investigate the empirical impact of violence as compared to other trade impediments on trade flows. Our analysis is based on a panel data set with annual observations on 177 countries from 1968 to 1999, which brings together information from the Rose [2004] dataset, the ITERATE dataset for terrorist events, and datasets of external and internal conflict. We explore these data with traditional and theoretical gravity models. We calculate that, for a given country year, the presence of terrorism, as well as internal and external conflict is equivalent to as much as a 30 percent tariff on trade. This is larger than estimated tariffequivalent costs of border and language barriers and tariff-equivalent reduction through GSPs and WTO participation.

While the EU is a customs union in merchandise trade (goods), it has not yet reached this stage of integration in service trade. How far the EU is from a customs union in service trade is very difficult to assess because of the nonquantitative nature of trade restrictions in this sector. The paper tries to present first indirections of how far the EU is from being a customs union by calculating frequency indices of trade measures using the Hoekman approach based on the February 2003 EU first offer regarding service trade in the Doha Round. The calculations show that differences in national policies against nonmember states are particulary relevant in modes of supply via factor movements. Inter alia, policy measures comprise national needs tests, residence criteria, and nationality criteria. The paper concludes that there is reason to assume that in the course of the Doha Round negotiations some if not many of national measures will be given up. Therefore multilateral trade negotiations will be instrumental to bring the EU to a complete customs union as it happened in goods trade between 1958 and 1968 when the Dillon Round and the Kennedy Round helped to complete the customs union in industrial goods.

This paper discusses the nature, importance, and measurement of non-tariff barriers (NTBs) in services trade with particular reference to telecommunications services. It is shown that although more effectively addressed for the telecom sector at the multilateral level than for other service sectors, NTBs are still widespread and would appear to have a large potential for restricting trade in services. The paper reviews the scope and classification of non-tariff barriers to services trade and sets out an alternative typology for their classification, highlighting the fact that NTBs may be either government-imposed, may result from non-competitive market structures, or from the absence of appropriate regulation. The latter is shown to constitute one of the most important sources of NTBs in network industries, such as telecommunications services. Attempts by the relevant literature to measure NTBs in telecommunications are summarized and their usefulness in identifying ?appropriate? policy mixes is commented. Lastly, the paper probes the question of whether existing multilateral and regional instruments and agreements are adequate to deal with the non-tariff phenomenon in the telecom sector in its several dimensions. 7 Dieses Papier behandelt das Wesen, die Bedeutung und die Messung nicht-tarifärer Handelsbeschränkungen (NTBs) im Dienstleistungshandel, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Telekommunikationsdienstleistungen. Es zeigt, dass NTBs, obwohl sie in der Telekommunikation auf der multilateralen Ebene wirksamer angegangen wurden als in anderen Dienstleistungsbereichen, noch immer weit verbreitet sind und den Dienstleistungshandel potentiell stark beeinträchtigen. Das Papier beschreibt die Erscheinungsformen und die Klassifikation nicht-tarifärer Handelsschranken im Dienstleistungshandel. Es stellt ein alternatives Klassifikationsschema vor, das von der Beobachtung ausgeht, dass NTBs entweder von Regierungen eingeführt sein können, oder auf monopolistischen Marktstrukturen basieren, oder Ergebnis unzureichender Regulierungen sind. Gezeigt wird, dass der letztgenannte Tatbestand eine der wichtigsten Quellen von NTBs in Netzwerkindustrien, wie der Telekommunikation, ist. Das Papier gibt einen Überblick über die Literatur zur Messung nicht-tarifärer Handelsschranken in der Telekommunikation und kommentiert ihre Brauchbarkeit für die Entwicklung geeigneter ?policy mixes?. Schließlich wird geprüft, ob die existierenden multilateralen und regionalen Instrumente und Vereinbarungen ausreichend sind, um mit dem vielschichtigen Problem der nicht-tarifären Hemmnisse im Telekommunikationssektor umzugehen.

Using the border effect approach, our paper examines the influence of the legal framework quality of the Central and Eastern European countries on international trade. This approach offers an evaluation of the borders' impact on trade. A market is fragmented when actual trade differs from the trade that would be expected in an economy without border-related barriers. Recent findings have emphasized informal trade barriers as obstacles to trade flows (Anderson and Marcouiller, 2002; Anderson and Young, 2000; Rauch, 2001). We introduce different measures of the legal framework quality, which appears as a significant informal trade barrier. Actually, in case of conflict between two trade partners, it proves to be difficult for a given partner to get damages. Therefore, incentives to trade could be reduced. We adopt and refine the theoretical monopolistic competition model of trade developed by Head and Mayer (2000) and estimate it focusing on imports of Hungary, Romania, and Slovenia from European Union (EU) and Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) countries. We find that legal framework quality appears as a strong determinant of export decisions of EU producers. In the opposite, the CEFTA producers seem to be less or not affected by this quality in their decisions of trade.

Recent rounds of GATT and later WTO have advocated widespread tariffication, meaning that existing non-tariff barriers be converted into import equivalent tariffs. From an economic point of view, the effects of such tariffication are not entirely clear. The paper presents a general equilibrium model with monopolistic competition to examine the welfare effects of tariffication. The ranking of pre- and post-tariffication welfare depends crucially on the nature of the initial trade barrier and the tariff tool applied. Tariffication using a specific (an ad valorem) tariff results in the same (a reduced) welfare level compared to an initial quota, whereas welfare is increased (the same) compared to an initial VER. Die GATT- und später WTO-Runden der letzten Jahre haben eine weitgreifende Tarifizierung durchgesetzt. Das bedeutet, dass existierende nicht-tarifäre Handelsbarrieren in Volumen-äquivalente Zölle konvertiert werden. Das Motiv einer solchen Maßnahme ist eine größere Transparenz der Handelspolitik. Aus einer volkswirtschaftlichen Sichtweise allerdings sind die Effekte von Tarifizierung nicht eindeutig. Dieser Aufsatz entwickelt ein allgemeines Gleichgewichtsmodell monopolistischen Wettbewerbes, um die Wohlfahrtseffekte einer Tarifizierungspolitik zu analysieren. Die Rangordnung der pre- und post-Tarifizierungswohlfahrt ist bestimmt durch die Form der ursprünglichen Handelsbarriere und die Wahl des eingesetzten Zollwerkzeuges. Tarifizierung mit einem Stückzoll (Wertzoll) resultiert in einem gleichbleibenden (reduzierten) Wohlfahrtsniveau verglichen mit einer ursprünglichen Quotenbarriere. Andererseits, wenn die ursprüngliche Handelsbarriere die Form einer freiwilligen Exportreduktion hat (VER), dann resultiert Tarifizierung mit einem Stückzoll (Wertzoll) in einem erhöhten (gleichbleibenden) Wohlfahrtsniveau.

This paper analyses the effects of non-tariff barriers, in terms of both variable and fixed export costs, on trade structure. The relationship between fixed and variable trade costs determines whether international trade emerges. If trade emerges, only variable, but not fixed export costs, influence the trade structure. The empirical results suggest that non-tariff barriers act, in particular, as fixed export costs, as the trade and intra-industry trade emerge in a larger number of industries than prior to the Single European Market programme, while the share of intra-industry trade is unaffected.

Technical standards in telecommunications – the central focus of this paper - were traditionally developed by official government accredited or intergovernmental organizations. In the last two decades, however, private forums and consortia of standardization have evolved which initiated a shift from a predominantly technical to a business approach to standards-setting. The business perspective also guides the evaluation of standards in trade policy at the European and at the international level. In the EU and more so in the WTO regional and national diversity of standards is generally regarded as a barrier to trade. Thus harmonization of diverging standards – and not standards competition – and/or the adoption of new international standards is stipulated. Only standards adopted by official organizations are regarded as legitimate. Private organizations and the standards developed by them tend to be ignored. Traditionell wurden technische Standards in der Telekommunikation - dem zentralen Gegenstand dieses Papiers - von anerkannten nationalen oder intergouvernementalen Organisationen entwickelt. In den letzten beiden Jahrzehnten sind jedoch private Foren und Konsortien entstanden, die einen Wandel initiiert haben von einem technisch zu einem kommerziell geprägten Verständnis von Standardisierung. Dieses leitet auch die Beurteilung von Standards durch die Handelspolitik auf europäischer und internationaler Ebene. In der EU und mehr noch in der WTO werden regional und national unterschiedliche Standards als Handelshemmnisse betrachtet. Deshalb fordert man die Harmonisierung der divergierenden Standards - und nicht deren Konkurrenz - und/oder die Entwicklung neuer internationaler Standards. Nur Standards, die von offiziellen Organisationen verabschiedet wurden, werden anerkannt. Private Organisationen und die von ihnen erarbeiteten Standards werden hingegen tendenziell ignoriert.

Standards and technical regulations which govern the admissibility of imported goods into an economy raise costs of exporters entering new markets, and may have a particularly high impact on firms seeking to export from developing countries. Yet standards may also have a positive side, such as certifying product quality and safety for the consumer. This paper analyzes potential conflicts of interest between consumers and firms in a developed and a developing country under different assumptions about the costs and benefits of standards imposed on tradable products by one or both of the countries.

Die vorliegende Untersuchung stellt die technischen Grundlagen und die Marktordnung für den internationalen Handel mit Telekommunikationsdienstleistungen dar; sie analysiert und bewertet die resultierenden Handelsbarrieren. Die Grundstruktur internationaler Telekommunikation wird in Abhängigkeit von der nationalen Marktform und dem Übertragungsmedium (Festnetz versus Mobilfunk) untersucht. Die unterschiedlichen Anreizstrukturen und möglichen Ineffizienzen werden dargestellt. Darauf aufbauend werden die möglichen Barrieren im internationalen Handel mit Telekommunikationsdienstleistungen einzeln diskutiert. Auf der Grundlage dieser Analyse kann eine Bewertung des Liberalisierungserfolgs des Regelwerks des GATS erfolgen. This paper outlines the technical foundations and the market structure for international trade in telecommunication services; it analyzes the resulting trade barriers. The basic structure of international telecommunications depends on the national market structure and the transmission technique (cable versus mobile). This results in different incentives and possible inefficiencies, which are discussed within this paper. Based on this, the possible barriers to international trade in telecommunication services are evaluated. This analysis lays the foundation for an evaluation of the GATS.

Die vorliegende Untersuchung stellt die technischen Grundlagen und die Marktordnung für den internationalen Handel mit Dienstleistungen der Informationstechnologie dar; sie analysiert und bewertet die resultierenden Handelsbarrieren. Die Funktionsweise des Internets (Netzaufbau, Adress- und Namensvergabe, technische Standardisierung und Datensicherheit) und die Grundstruktur des elektronischen Geschäftsverkehrs (Ebenen, Digitalisierungsgrad und Wertschöpfungskette) werden untersucht. Darauf aufbauend werden die möglichen Barrieren im internationalen Handel mit Dienstleistungen der Informationstechnologie in ökonomische und institutionelle, technische sowie rechtliche Hemmnisse kategorisiert und einzeln diskutiert. Auf der Grundlage dieser Analyse kann eine Bewertung des Liberalisierungserfolgs des Regelwerks des GATS erfolgen. This paper outlines the technical foundations and the market structure for international trade in information technology services; it analyzes the resulting trade barriers. The functioning of the Internet (network structure, allocation of names and numbers, technical standardization and safety requirements) as well as the basic structure of electronic commerce (different levels, digitalization and multimedia chain) are discussed. Based on this, possible economic, institutional, technical and legal barriers to international trade in information technology services are evaluated. This analysis lays the foundations for an evaluation of the GATS.

With the referral of the Kodak - Fuji market access dispute to the World Trade Organization, the role of retail distribution channel control by incumbent firms as a barrier to imports has drawn much interest. This paper reviews the issues from an historical perspective and analyzes the difficulties facing firms attempting to sell their products in other nations' automobile and photo supplies markets. There has been a natural evolution of retail distribution channels from mom and pop stores to hyper markets. The earlier the stage in this evolutionary process at which a nation's retail channels stand, the more difficult it is for consumer goods importers to secure their own products' distribution. Volkswagen's early entry into the U.S. automobile market and Nissan's later entry are analyzed as examples of how exclusive distribution channels controlled by incumbents can be surmounted. Key aspects of the Kodak Fuji case are also examined. The advantages and disadvantages of manufacturers' restraints on their distributors are so complex, the paper concludes, that it would be difficult to adopt uniform international competition policies toward trade-impairing vertical restraints.

Tariffs no longer represent the most serious impediment to international trade. As the importance of tariffs in restricting free trade has been declining, non-tariff barriers are becoming increasingly important. The use of selected non-tariff barriers is analyzed, focusing on anti-dumping measures, voluntary export restraints, trade related investment measures, and trade related intellectual property rights. Coming multilateral negotiations will have to concentrate on non-tariff barriers. A first prerequisite for successful negotiations is to increase transparency of these instruments. Only if transparency is ensured, improved enforcement mechanisms can be implemented.

Ein Mengenkontingent für das Importgut definiert eine Konsummöglichkeitskurve, die den Konsum im Vergleich zum Freihandel einschränkt. Die Eigenschaften dieser Kurve werden diskutiert. Das Kontingent bewirkt eine sektorale Umschichtung, ein niedrigeres Volkseinkommen und eine Spaltung zwischen inländischem und ausländischem Relativpreis. Im Fall des großen Landes öffnet sich diese Preisschere stärker. Import quotas define a consumption possibility curve that restricts consumption relative to free trade. Some properties of this curve are discussed. Quantitative restrictions imply a sectorial shift, a lower national income and a wedge between the relative price at home and abroad. In the case of a big country the price differential increases relative to the small country case.