North-South Standards Harmonization and International Trade
Recent years have seen a surge in economic integration agreements (EIAs) and the development of non-tariff measures (NTMs). As a consequence, a growing number of EIAs include provisions on NTMs. However, little attention has been given in the liter...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/11/18552913/north-south-standards-harmonization-international-trade http://hdl.handle.net/10986/16903 |
| Summary: | Recent years have seen a surge in
economic integration agreements (EIAs) and the development
of non-tariff measures (NTMs). As a consequence, a growing
number of EIAs include provisions on NTMs. However, little
attention has been given in the literature to the effects of
NTM liberalization in the context of EIAs. In this paper, we
focus on provisions for technical regulations and analyze
whether the North-South harmonization of technical barriers
affects international trade. Using a gravity equation, it
tests whether, as a result of the deep integration
associated with standards provisions included in the EIA,
the Southern partners' trade expands with the North,
but at the expense of their trade with non-bloc Southern
partners. Empirical results provide strong support for this
conjecture. Moreover, harmonization on the basis of regional
standards negatively impacts the exports of developing
countries to the North. |
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