Tag / non-tariff measures

by Mike Poverello

WTO – New Edition of World Tariff Profiles

The WTO issued today (6 July) the 2023 edition of “World Tariff Profiles”, an annual publication providing comprehensive information on tariffs imposed on imports by over 170 countries and customs territories. The report — jointly prepared with the International Trade Centre and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) — also provides data on non-tariff measures, such as anti-dumping actions, countervailing duties and safeguard measures.

One-page profiles provide an overview of each economy’s tariffs broken down by product group. The profiles also show the tariffs imposed by its main trading partners.

Summary tables provide comparisons of the average “bound” or maximum tariff each economy may apply to imports and the average tariffs it applies in practice. Data is provided for agricultural and non-agricultural products as well as for “all products”. Import and export profiles provide comparisons on the value of imports for each economy, the level of export diversification, and relevant tariff data.

The publication also contains two special topics. The first analyzes the evolution of market access over 16 years of “World Tariff Profiles”, highlighting trends for applied and bound tariffs across product groups, regions and level of development. It reveals a modest improvement in trade opening, with the average tariff for all products declining from 10.1 per cent in 2006 to 8.9 per cent in 2021. 

The second topic looks into the product classification system used by the WTO for trade statistics and policy analysis. It underlines that the 2023 version of the WTO’s Multilateral Trade Negotiations (MTN) Categories, containing a new two-tier structure for 22 MTN categories with a total of 72 MTN sub-categories, will facilitate more precise analysis of trade patterns.

The publication is available here.

Source: World Trade Organisation, Publications, and 6 July 2023

by Mike Poverello

World Trade Report 2012

This year’s World Trade Report ventures beyond tariffs to examine other policy measures that can affect trade. As tariffs have fallen in the years since the birth of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1948, attention has progressively shifted towards non-tariff measures (NTMs). The range of NTMs is vast, complex, driven by multiple policy motives, and ever-changing. Public policy objectives underlying NTMs have evolved. The drivers of change are many, including greater inter-dependency in a globalizing world, increased social awareness, and growing concerns regarding health, safety, and environmental quality. Many of these factors call for a deepening of integration, wresting attention away from more traditional and shallower forms of cooperation. Trade in services is a part of this development and has come under greater scrutiny, along with the policies that influence services trade.

So what does the report contain? Click here to download the report!

  • Section A of the Report presents an overview of the history of non-tariff measures in the GATT/WTO. This overview discusses how motivations for using NTMs have evolved, complicating this area of trade policy but not changing the core challenge of managing the relationship between public policy and trading opportunities.
  • Section B examines the reasons why governments use NTMs and services measures and the extent to which public policy interventions may also distort international trade. The phenomenon of off-shoring and the cross-effects of services measures on goods trade are also considered. The section analyses choices among alternative policy instruments from a theoretical and empirical perspective. Finally, case studies are presented on the use of NTMs in particular contexts.These include the recent financial crisis, climate change policy and food safety concerns. The case studies consider how far measures adopted may pose a challenge for international trade.
  • Section C of the Report surveys available sources of information on NTMs and services measures and evaluates their relative strengths and weaknesses. It uses this information to establish a number of “stylized facts”, first about NTMs (TBT/SPS measures in particular) and then about services measures.
  • Section D discusses the magnitude and the trade effects of NTMs and services measures in general, before focusing on TBT/SPS measures and domestic regulation in services. It also examines how regulatory harmonization and/or mutual recognition of standards help to reduce the trade-hindering effects of the diversity of TBT and SPS measures and domestic regulation in services.
  • Section E looks at international cooperation on NTMs and services measures. The first part reviews the economic rationale for such cooperation and discusses the efficient design of rules on NTMs in a trade agreement. The second part looks at how cooperation has occurred on TBT/SPS measures and services regulation in the multilateral trading system, and within other international forums and institutions. The third part of the section deals with the legal analysis of the treatment of NTMs in the GATT/WTO dispute system and interpretations of the rules that have emerged in recent international trade disputes. The section concludes with a discussion of outstanding challenges and key policy implications of the Report. Source: World Trade Organisation.
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