Chapter 4 – International Trade Theory and the firm

Overview
Trade patterns and policies have become more complex and multi-faceted. The ability to gain and to benefit from market access depends increasingly on compliance with Non-tariff trade measures such as policies on sanitary and quality requirements of goods, price and quantity measures, licensing requirements, subsidies, and competition related policies. Non-tariff measures are defined as policy measures, other that customs tariffs, that can potentially have an economic influence on international trade in goods, changes in quantities traded, or prices or both. As a concept it is seen as neutral and does not imply a negative impact on international trade. Non-tariff barriers (NTB) are seen as a subset of NTM that have a protectionist or discriminatory intent.

Activity description
Businesses, policy developers, and trade negotiators are often hindered by a lack of clear and systematic information about such policies.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has developed the TRAINS database to provide information on a broad range of policy instruments to enhance the transparency of Non-tariff measures.

Go to the website and do a quick search on countries of your choice in terms of the country imposing NTM and the partner it affects and also the product affected.

Consider:

• The categories of NTM that are applied per geographic Region.
• The number of measures that are in force per country.
• Why would governments develop NTM policies given the benefits of free trade?

Visit the following website:
https://unctad.org/en/pages/newsdetails.aspx?OriginalVersionID=1303

Click on ‘TRAINS Database’ link on the webpage that will redirect you to the database.