The ability to gain and to benefit from market access depends increasingly on compliance with trade regulatory measures such as sanitary requirements and goods standards.
These Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) represent a challenge for exporters, importers and policy makers.
Many NTMs have primarily non-trade objectives like the protection of public health or the environment while affecting trade de facto through procedural requirements. NTMs can unintentionally be discriminatory against smaller exporters and certain countries.
Regardless of the legitimacy and intention, NTMs are thought to have important restrictive and distortionary effects on international trade - higher than tariffs. For example, the overall trade restrictiveness that includes both tariffs and non-tariff measures is equivalent to almost 30 per cent on agricultural products. The restrictiveness of tariffs only is less than 10 per cent. Tariffs have been reduced unilaterally and in regional and multilateral negotiations in recent decades. Thus, for market access and effective market entry NTMs play a pivotal role.
Appropriate trade regulatory measures that are efficient, provide protection for consumers and support economic and social development is also important for the import side. Furthermore, addressing NTMs adequately in regional agreements is crucial for regional economic integration. Dealing with NTMs however is very complex.
Understanding the uses and implications of these trade policy instruments is essential for the formulation and implementation of effective growth and development strategies.
Non-tariff measures (NTMs) are being applied to traded goods to an ever increasing extent, and represent a growing challenge for exporters, importers and policy makers.
This workshop provides the opportunity to raise awareness and inform a larger audience of government officials and exporter associations that need to understand how NTMs may shape up policies in the future in countries that are actively involved in international and regional trade.
Each session is followed by an interactive discussion.
