IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/oxecpp/v78y2026i1p259-288..html

The effect of nontariff barriers on unreported trade: exploring a customs duty reform

Author

Listed:
  • Rafael Bressan
  • Enlinson Mattos

Abstract

Nontariff barriers (NTBs) are a central yet understudied dimension of trade policy, particularly in their influence on customs duty compliance. Using detailed administrative import records and a Brazilian tariff reform, this article shows that NTBs significantly reduce customs duty evasion by curbing value underreporting and virtually eliminating quantity misreporting. These effects vary substantially across firms, products, and trade partners: final consumption goods, nonmanufacturing importers, and transactions with MERCOSUR countries exhibit weaker responsiveness to NTB enforcement. NTBs operate as an additional layer of regulatory enforcement, strengthening compliance incentives and shaping strategic trade reporting behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Rafael Bressan & Enlinson Mattos, 2026. "The effect of nontariff barriers on unreported trade: exploring a customs duty reform," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 78(1), pages 259-288.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:oxecpp:v:78:y:2026:i:1:p:259-288.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/oep/gpaf030
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:oxecpp:v:78:y:2026:i:1:p:259-288.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/oep .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.