IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/weltar/v152y2016i2d10.1007_s10290-015-0242-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Non-tariff measures, preferential trade agreements, and prices: new evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Olivier Cadot

    (University of Lausanne
    CEPR
    FERDI)

  • Julien Gourdon

    (CEPII)

Abstract

Combining for the first time a new dataset of non-tariff measures (NTMs) in 65 countries with the CEPII’s unit values database, we estimate average ad-valorem equivalents (AVEs) for sanitary and phytosanitary, technical-barriers-to trade and other measures by section of the Harmonized System of product classification. While most existing AVEs are obtained from indirect quantity-based estimation, ours are obtained from direct price-gap estimation. They lie in a single-digit range, i.e. substantially lower than previous estimates based on older data. Our results may reflect the progressive phasing out of command-and-control instruments such as quantitative restrictions in many countries; they also suggest that sanitary and technical regulations have not substituted for them as trade-restrictive interventions. Most interestingly, we show that deep-integration clauses in regional trade agreements, in particular the mutual recognition of conformity-assessment procedures, substantially reduce the price-raising effect of NTMs, possibly reflecting lower compliance costs.

Suggested Citation

  • Olivier Cadot & Julien Gourdon, 2016. "Non-tariff measures, preferential trade agreements, and prices: new evidence," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 152(2), pages 227-249, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:weltar:v:152:y:2016:i:2:d:10.1007_s10290-015-0242-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s10290-015-0242-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10290-015-0242-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10290-015-0242-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hiau LooiKee & Alessandro Nicita & Marcelo Olarreaga, 2009. "Estimating Trade Restrictiveness Indices," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(534), pages 172-199, January.
    2. Maurice Obstfeld & Kenneth Rogoff, 2001. "The Six Major Puzzles in International Macroeconomics: Is There a Common Cause?," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2000, Volume 15, pages 339-412, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. John Christopher Beghin & Anne-Célia Disdier & Stéphan Marette, 2017. "Trade restrictiveness indices in the presence of externalities: An application to non-tariff measures," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: John Christopher Beghin (ed.), Nontariff Measures and International Trade, chapter 5, pages 81-104, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    4. Robert C. Feenstra, 1984. "Voluntary Export Restraint in U.S. Autos, 1980-81: Quality, Employment, and Welfare Effects," NBER Chapters, in: The Structure and Evolution of Recent US Trade Policy, pages 35-66, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Céline CARRERE & Jaime MELO DE, 2009. "Non-Tariff Measures: What do we Know, What Should be Done?," Working Papers 200933, CERDI.
    6. Maggie Xiaoyang Chen & Aaditya Mattoo, 2008. "Regionalism in standards: good or bad for trade?," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(3), pages 838-863, August.
    7. Anderson, James E & Neary, J Peter, 1994. "Measuring the Restrictiveness of Trade Policy," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank Group, vol. 8(2), pages 151-169, May.
    8. John Christopher Beghin & Anne-Célia Disdier & Stéphan Marette, 2017. "Trade restrictiveness indices in the presence of externalities: An application to non-tariff measures," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: John Christopher Beghin (ed.), Nontariff Measures and International Trade, chapter 5, pages 81-104, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    9. James E. Anderson & Eric van Wincoop, 2004. "Trade Costs," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 42(3), pages 691-751, September.
    10. Fontagné, Lionel & Orefice, Gianluca & Piermartini, Roberta & Rocha, Nadia, 2015. "Product standards and margins of trade: Firm-level evidence," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 29-44.
    11. Nicolas Berman & Philippe Martin & Thierry Mayer, 2012. "How do Different Exporters React to Exchange Rate Changes?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 127(1), pages 437-492.
    12. Disdier, Anne-Celia & Fontagne, Lionel & Mimouni, Mondher, 2008. "AJAE Appendix: The Impact of Regulations on Agricultural Trade: Evidence from the SPS and TBT Agreements," American Journal of Agricultural Economics APPENDICES, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 90(2), pages 1-7.
    13. Carrère, Céline & De Melo, Jaime, 2011. "Non-Tariff Measures: What Do We Know, What Might Be Done?," Journal of Economic Integration, Center for Economic Integration, Sejong University, vol. 26, pages 169-196.
    14. Scott Bradford, 2003. "Paying the Price: Final Goods Protection in OECD Countries," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(1), pages 24-37, February.
    15. Marc J. Melitz, 2003. "The Impact of Trade on Intra-Industry Reallocations and Aggregate Industry Productivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(6), pages 1695-1725, November.
    16. Andriamananjara, Soamiely & Dean, Judith M. & Feinberg, Robert & Ferrantino, Michael J. & Ludema, Rodney & Tsigas, Marinos E., 2004. "The Effects of Non-Tariff Measures on Prices, Trade, and Welfare: CGE Implementation of Policy-Based Price Comparisons," Working Papers 15863, United States International Trade Commission, Office of Economics.
    17. Jouanjean, Marie-Agnes & Maur, Jean-Christophe & Shepherd, Ben, 2011. "Reputation matters: Spillover effects in the enforcement of US SPS measures," MPRA Paper 35270, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Lionel Fontagné & Gianluca Orefice & Roberta Piermartini & Nadia Rocha, 2015. "Product Standards and Margins of Trade: Firm-Level Evidence Product Standards and Margins of Trade: Firm-Level Evidence," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-01299757, HAL.
    19. Julien Gourdon, 2014. "CEPII NTM-MAP: A Tool for Assessing the Economic Impact of Non-Tariff Measures," Working Papers 2014-24, CEPII research center.
    20. Olivier Cadot & Julien Gourdon, 2014. "Editor's choice Assessing the Price-Raising Effect of Non-Tariff Measures in Africa," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies (CSAE), vol. 23(4), pages 425-463.
    21. Hoekman, Bernard & Nicita, Alessandro, 2011. "Trade Policy, Trade Costs, and Developing Country Trade," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(12), pages 2069-2079.
    22. Jean-Pierre Chauffour & Jean-Christophe Maur, 2011. "Preferential Trade Agreement Policies for Development : A Handbook," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2329, December.
    23. Maertens, Miet & Swinnen, Johan F.M., 2009. "Trade, Standards, and Poverty: Evidence from Senegal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 161-178, January.
    24. Maskus, Keith E. & Otsuki, Tsunehiro & Wilson, John S., 2005. "The cost of compliance with product standards for firms in developing countries: an econometric study," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3590, The World Bank.
    25. Robert E. Baldwin, 1989. "Measuring Nontariff Trade Policies," NBER Working Papers 2978, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    26. repec:cii:cepiei:2011-q4-128-5 is not listed on IDEAS
    27. John Christopher Beghin & Anne-Célia Disdier & Stéphan Marette, 2017. "Trade restrictiveness indices in the presence of externalities: An application to non-tariff measures," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: John Christopher Beghin (ed.), Nontariff Measures and International Trade, chapter 5, pages 81-104, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    28. Beghin, John C. & Disdier, Anne-Celia & Marette, Stephan & van Tongeren, Frank, 2011. "Measuring Costs And Benefits Of Non-Tariff Measures In Agri-Food Trade," Staff General Research Papers Archive 32393, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    29. Witold Czubala & Ben Shepherd & John S. Wilson, 2009. "Help or Hindrance? The Impact of Harmonised Standards on African Exports †," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies (CSAE), vol. 18(5), pages 711-744, November.
    30. Simeon Djankov & Caroline Freund & Cong S. Pham, 2010. "Trading on Time," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(1), pages 166-173, February.
    31. Antoine Berthou & Charlotte Emlinger, 2011. "The Trade Unit Values database," International Economics, CEPII research center, issue 128, pages 97-117.
    32. Iza Lejárraga & Ben Shepherd, 2013. "Quantitative Evidence on Transparency in Regional Trade Agreements," OECD Trade Policy Papers 153, OECD Publishing.
    33. John Christopher Beghin & Anne-Célia Disdier & Stéphan Marette, 2017. "Trade restrictiveness indices in the presence of externalities: An application to non-tariff measures," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: John Christopher Beghin (ed.), Nontariff Measures and International Trade, chapter 5, pages 81-104, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    34. Otsuki, Tsunehiro & Wilson, John S. & Sewadeh, Mirvat, 2001. "Saving two in a billion: : quantifying the trade effect of European food safety standards on African exports," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 495-514, October.
    35. Bruno Henry de Frahan & Mark Vancauteren, 2006. "Harmonisation of food regulations and trade in the Single Market: evidence from disaggregated data," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Foundation for the European Review of Agricultural Economics, vol. 33(3), pages 337-360, September.
    36. Michael J. Ferrantino, 2006. "Quantifying the Trade and Economic Effects of Non-Tariff Measures," OECD Trade Policy Papers 28, OECD Publishing.
    37. Trefler, Daniel, 1995. "The Case of the Missing Trade and Other Mysteries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(5), pages 1029-1046, December.
    38. John S. Wilson & Victor O. Abiola, 2003. "Standards and Global Trade : A Voice for Africa," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 15131, December.
    39. Alan V. Deardorff & Robert M. Stern, 1997. "Measurement of Non-Tariff Barriers," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 179, OECD Publishing.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Olivier Cadot & Julien Gourdon, 2015. "NTMs, Preferential Trade Agreements, and Prices: New evidence," Working Papers 2015-01, CEPII research center.
    2. Annalisa Zezza & Federica Demaria & Maria Rosaria Pupo d'Andrea & Jo Swinnen & Giulia Meloni & Senne Vandevelde & Alessandro Olper & Daniele Curzi & Valentina Raimondi & Sophie Drogue, 2018. "Research for AGRI Committee - Agricultural trade: assessing reciprocity of standards," Working Papers hal-02787948, HAL.
    3. Ederington,Josh & Ruta,Michele, 2016. "Non-tariff measures and the world trading system," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7661, The World Bank.
    4. Eyal RONEN, 2017. "Quantifying the trade effects of NTMs: A review of the empirical literature," Journal of Economics and Political Economy, KSP Journals, vol. 4(3), pages 263-274, September.
    5. Salamat Ali, 2016. "Export Response to Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures and Technical Barriers to Trade: Firm-level Evidence from a Developing Country," Discussion Papers 2016-02, University of Nottingham, CREDIT.
    6. Maria Cipollina & Federica Demaria, 2020. "The Trade Effect of the EU’s Preference Margins and Non-Tariff Barriers," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-20, September.
    7. Grant, Jason & Arita, Shawn, 2017. "Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary Measures: Assessment, Measurement, and Impact," Commissioned Papers 259417, International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium.
    8. Disdier, Anne-Célia & Gaigné, Carl & Herghelegiu, Cristina, 2018. "Do Standards Improve the Quality of Traded Products?," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Docweb) 1808, CEPREMAP.
    9. Olper, Alessandro, 2017. "The political economy of trade-related regulatory policy: environment and global value chain," Bio-based and Applied Economics Journal, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA), vol. 5(3), February.
    10. Cosimo Beverelli & Mauro Boffa & Alexander Keck, 2019. "Trade policy substitution: theory and evidence," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 155(4), pages 755-783, November.
    11. Olivier Cadot & Julien Gourdon, 2012. "Assessing the price-raising effect of non-tariff measures in Africa," Working Papers 2012-16, CEPII research center.
    12. Michael Bratt, 2017. "Estimating the bilateral impact of nontariff measures on trade," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(5), pages 1105-1129, November.
    13. John C. Beghin & Bo Xiong, 2016. "Economic Effects of Standard-Like Nontariff Measures: Analytical and Methodological Dimensions," Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) Publications 16-wp569, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University.
    14. Giorgio Barba Navaretti & Giulia Felice & Emanuele Forlani & Paolo Garella, 2018. "Non-tariff measures and competitiveness," Development Working Papers 438, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano.
    15. Murat Genç & David Law, 2014. "A Gravity Model of Barriers to Trade in New Zealand," Treasury Working Paper Series 14/05, New Zealand Treasury.
    16. Mahdi Ghodsi, 2018. "The Impact of Chinese Technical Barriers to Trade on its Manufacturing Imports," wiiw Working Papers 146, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    17. Olivier Cadot & Julien Gourdon, 2014. "Editor's choice Assessing the Price-Raising Effect of Non-Tariff Measures in Africa," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies (CSAE), vol. 23(4), pages 425-463.
    18. Bo Xiong & John Beghin, 2017. "Disentangling Demand-Enhancing And Trade-Cost Effects Of Maximum Residue Regulations," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: John Christopher Beghin (ed.), Nontariff Measures and International Trade, chapter 6, pages 105-108, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    19. John C. Beghin & Bo Xiong, 2016. "Economic Effects of Standard-Like Nontariff Measures: Analytical and Methodological Dimensions," Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) Publications 16-wp569, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University.
    20. Maria Cipollina & Luca Salvatici, 2008. "Measuring Protection: Mission Impossible?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(3), pages 577-616, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Non-tariff measures; Price gaps; Regional trade agreements; Deep integration; Harmonization; Unit values;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration

    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:spr:weltar:v:152:y:2016:i:2:d:10.1007_s10290-015-0242-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: . General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.