Addressing NTMs to facilitate trade through coordinated policy interventions: Studying and analysing trade barriers may be the best way to vanquish them.

• Date: 01 October 2018
• Author: Chaudry, Qasim

Notwithstanding the recent escalation in tariffs for protectionist purposes, there has been an exponential rise in the use of non-tariff measures (NTMs) globally. This has coincided with consumers, especially in the developed world, becoming more conscious of the quality of what they consume and buy. As a result, governments are resorting to using NTMs for their national development goals. According to the Global Trade Alert (GTA), only 15% of the harmful policy instruments since the 2008 global financial crisis were due to policy measures while the rest were related to NTMss.

NTMs may be completely legitimate and more often than not are used to address genuine social concerns of public or private stakeholders. However, they can and do become barriers to trade when they negatively impact trade flows and result in unnecessary compliance costs for traders. To make matters worse, evidence suggests that many countries are deliberately using NTMs with a protectionist intent to constrain imports. As such, any attempt to address trade barriers arising from such measures must consist of a detailed analysis of the objectives behind their implementation; their legality as per the national, regional legislations and trade agreements; root causes of the resulting trade barriers; and implementation modalities. This analysis is a...