Developing Country Trade Policies and Market Access Issues : 1990-2012
The study presents a comprehensive review of developing country trade policies and market access issues as they evolved over the period 1990-2012. The main findings are, first, that applied tariffs as well as traditional core non-tariff measures ha...
Main Authors: | , |
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Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
Language: | English en_US |
Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2013
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/05/17772240/ http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15554 |
Summary: | The study presents a comprehensive
review of developing country trade policies and market
access issues as they evolved over the period 1990-2012. The
main findings are, first, that applied tariffs as well as
traditional core non-tariff measures have declined
significantly over time in both developed and developing
countries. Second, the instruments of protection used by
developed and developing countries are becoming increasingly
similar: trade remedies, especially anti-dumping are the
instruments of choice for all except low-income developing
countries. Third, agriculture is the main sector where
developing countries face access problems in OECD markets.
Fourth, regional and other preferential trade agreements are
both a result and a cause of the lack of progress in
multilateral trade negotiations. They violate the basic
World Trade Organization tenet of most favored nation and
thus pose a potential threat to the multilateral system and
a potential stimulus to further multilateral collaboration.
Fifth, sanitary and phytosanitary and technical barriers to
trade are being increasingly used by both developed and
developing countries but their protective intent is
difficult to gauge. There is a need for increased vigilance,
transparency, and reporting to ensure that they are not
being used as a means of protection of economic interests.
Sixth, the service sectors are the most promising area where
efforts for further liberalization are needed and may
produce significant benefits. And seventh, far less
additional protection has been put in place following the
2008 financial crisis compared with what had been feared or
what had happened in earlier crises. |
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