IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/vpi/aaecpp/aaecpp2025-01.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Non-Tariff Measures and U.S. Agricultural Exports

Author

Listed:
  • Yunus Emre Karagulle

    (Center for Agricultural Trade, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Virginia Tech)

  • Charlotte Emlinger

    (CEPII, Paris, France)

  • Jason H. Grant

    (Center for Agricultural Trade, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Virginia Tech)

Abstract

How much do non-tariff measures (NTMs) affect U.S. agricultural exports? While countries maintain a large and diverse set of NTMs to safeguard the health of plants, animals, and humans, policymakers and regulatory bodies may neglect the impact these measures have on international trade. This paper evaluates the impact of two broad types of NTMs important to U.S. food and agricultural exports: sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures and technical barriers to trade (TBTs). We construct a new database detailing the more prominent SPS and TBT measures impacting U.S. exports as highlighted in the Office of the United States Trade Representative's (USTR) National Trade Estimate (NTE) report from 2007 to 2021. Using a theoretically consistent gravity equation, we find that SPS and TBT measures reduce U.S. agricultural exports by 34.5%, on average, equivalent to a 16.4% ad valorem tariff. However, we find little evidence that these NTMs significantly affect the probability of U.S. exports or export survival in destination markets (i.e., the probability of export failure) suggesting that these measures primarily impact variable trade costs and the intensive margin of trade.

Suggested Citation

  • Yunus Emre Karagulle & Charlotte Emlinger & Jason H. Grant, 2025. "Non-Tariff Measures and U.S. Agricultural Exports," Papers aaecpp2025-01, AAEC Published Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:vpi:aaecpp:aaecpp2025-01
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repecarchive.aaec.vt.edu/aaecpp/aaecpp2025-01.pdf
    File Function: Full article
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jayson Beckman & Shawn Arita, 2017. "Modeling the Interplay between Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures and Tariff-rate Quotas under Partial Trade Liberalization," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 99(4), pages 1078-1095.
    2. Hellerstein, Daniel & Vilorio, Dennis, 2019. "Agricultural Resources and Environmental Indicators, 2019," Economic Information Bulletin 288293, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    3. Li, Yuan, 2013. "The trade effects, protectionism, and political economy of non-tariff measures," ISU General Staff Papers 201301010800003995, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    4. Grant, Jason & Peterson, Everett & Ramniceanu, Radu, 2015. "Assessing the Impact of SPS Regulations on U.S. Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Exports," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 40(01), pages 1-20.
    5. Julien Gourdon & Susan Stone & Frank van Tongeren, 2020. "Non-tariff measures in agriculture," OECD Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Papers 147, OECD Publishing.
    6. Robert C. Feenstra, 2015. "Advanced International Trade: Theory and Evidence Second Edition," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 2, number 10615.
    7. Anne-Célia Disdier & Marco Fugazza, 2020. "A Practical Guide to the Economic Analysis of Non-Tariff Measures," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-02921617, HAL.
    8. Jason H. Grant & Kathryn A. Boys, 2012. "Agricultural Trade and the GATT/WTO: Does Membership Make a Difference?," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 94(1), pages 1-24.
    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. Mario Larch & Jeff Luckstead & Yoto V. Yotov, 2024. "Economic sanctions and agricultural trade," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 106(4), pages 1477-1517, August.
    2. Luckstead, Jeff, . "Impacts of Bilateral Trade Agreements between the United States and Latin American Countries on Agri-Food Trade," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 47(3).
    3. Grant, Jason & Arita, Shawn, "undated". "Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary Measures: Assessment, Measurement, and Impact," Commissioned Papers 259417, International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium.
    4. McDougall, Brendan S. & Afesorgbor, Sylvanus Kwaku, 2020. "The Effect of Free Trade Agreements on the Intensive and Extensive Margins of Canadian Agri-Food Trade," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304486, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Shiguang Peng & Le Wang & Lei Xu, 2024. "Impact of non‐tariff measures on the survival of China's fresh fruit exports," Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, The Crawford School, The Australian National University, vol. 38(1), pages 145-170, May.
    6. Felbermayr Gabriel & Steininger Marina, 2019. "Revisiting the Euro’s Trade Cost and Welfare Effects," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 239(5-6), pages 917-956, October.
    7. Jie Duan & Zengxi Hu, 2024. "Internet linkage and international trade: From the perspective of risk alleviation," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(8), pages 3551-3577, August.
    8. Hylke Vandenbussche & William Connell & Wouter Simons, 2022. "Global value chains, trade shocks and jobs: An application to Brexit," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(8), pages 2338-2369, August.
    9. Arezki, Rabah & Fetzer, Thiemo & Pisch, Frank, 2017. "On the comparative advantage of U.S. manufacturing: Evidence from the shale gas revolution," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 34-59.
    10. 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.
    11. Christian Elleby & Wusheng Yu & Qian Yu, 2018. "The Chinese Export Displacement Effect Revisited," IFRO Working Paper 2018/02, University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics.
    12. Risti Permani, 2021. "FTA, Exchange rate pass‐through and export price behavior – Lessons from the Australian dairy sector," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 65(1), pages 192-221, January.
    13. Jayson Beckman & Maros Ivanic & Jeremy Jelliffe, 2022. "Market impacts of Farm to Fork: Reducing agricultural input usage," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(4), pages 1995-2013, December.
    14. Mohammed Kebiru Ibrahim, Ufedo Monday Shaibu, 2024. "Analysis of Ghana—Nigeria Export Trade: Linkages, Impacts and Policy Implications," Research on World Agricultural Economy, Nan Yang Academy of Sciences Pte Ltd (NASS), vol. 5(4), November.
    15. Jha, Priyaranjan & Rodriguez-Lopez, Antonio, 2021. "Monopsonistic labor markets and international trade," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    16. Benedikt Herz & Xosé-Luís Varela-Irimia, 2020. "Border effects in European public procurement [Information costs and home bias: an analysis of US holdings of foreign equities]," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 20(6), pages 1359-1405.
    17. Dasgupta, Kunal & Mondria, Jordi, 2018. "Inattentive importers," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 150-165.
    18. Ronen, Eyal, . "The Trade-Enhancing Effect Of Non-Tariff Measures On Virgin Olive Oil," International Journal of Food and Agricultural Economics (IJFAEC), Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University, Department of Economics and Finance, vol. 5(3).
    19. Fontagné, Lionel & Santoni, Gianluca, 2021. "GVCs and the endogenous geography of RTAs," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    20. Jayson Beckman & Amanda M. Countryman, 2021. "The Importance of Agriculture in the Economy: Impacts from COVID‐19," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 103(5), pages 1595-1611, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:vpi:aaecpp:aaecpp2025-01. 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.

    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: Nancy Moseley or Melissa Vidmar (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.