Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-f46jp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-10T20:36:33.327Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Lowering Regulatory Trade Costs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2023

Jacques Pelkmans
Jacques Pelkmans*
Affiliation:
Centre for European Policy Studies; College of Europe; and Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
*
Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Negotiations on ‘deeper’ trade agreements and estimates of tariff equivalents have increased the awareness that regulatory trade costs are (too) high. This paper discusses ways to effectively lower such costs, reviewing the potential role of trade agreements and international regulatory cooperation, and the approaches that have been taken in different world regions. Attention is also paid to cost reduction via global technical standardization. Key issues are how to reduce the prevalence of national standards setting and how to best promote international standards. In both dimensions, Europe is argued to play a frontrunner role.

Type
Original Article
Information
World Trade Review , Volume 22 , Special Issue 3-4: Double Special Issue: Trade Policy, Openness, and Development in Honour of L. Alan Winters , October 2023 , pp. 497 - 507
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The World Trade Organization

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This article is a synthesis of a longer working paper, Pelkmans (2023).

References

Baldock, D., Lydgate, E., Pelkmans, J., and Zuleeg, F. (2019) Ensuring a Post-BREXIT Level Playing Field. Brussels: European Policy Centre.Google Scholar
Benz, S. and Jaax, A. (2022) ‘The Costs of Regulatory Barriers to Trade in Services: New Estimates of Ad Valorem Tariff Equivalents’, Economic Letters 212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2021.110057.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borchert, I., Magdaleine, J., Marchetti, J., and Mattoo, A. (2020) ‘The Evolution of Services Trade Policy Since the Great Recession’, WTO Staff Working Paper ERSD-2020-02.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bull, R. (2022) Improving International Regulatory Cooperation in an Age of Trade Scepticism. Washington, DC: Brookings.Google Scholar
Cadot, O. and Gourdon, J. (2016) ‘Non-Tariff Measures, Preferential Trade Agreements and Prices: New Evidence’, Review of World Economics 152(2), 227–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cernat, L. and Boucher, D. (2021) ‘Multilateral Cooperation Behind the Trade War Headlines: How Much Trade is Freed Up?’, CEPS Policy Insights, PI2021/03.Google Scholar
Chase, P. and Pelkmans, J. (2015) ‘This Time it's Different: Turbo-Charging Regulatory Cooperation’, in Hamilton, D. and Pelkmans, J. (eds.), Rule-Makers or Rule-Takers, Exploring TTIP. Rowman & Littlefield, 17–60.Google Scholar
Correia de Brito, A., Kauffman, C., and Pelkmans, J. (2016) ‘The Contribution of Mutual Recognition Agreements to International Regulatory Cooperation’, OECD Regulatory Policy Paper 2.Google Scholar
Disdier, A., Stone, S., and van Tongeren, F. (2019) ‘Trade and Economic Effects of IRC’, OECD Trade Policy Paper 224.Google Scholar
Doan, H., Rosenow, S., and Buban, S. (2019) ‘Non-Tariff Measures and Regional Integration in ASEAN’, in Doan, H. and Rosenow, S. (eds.), Non-Tariff Measures in ASEAN – an Update. Jakarta: ERIA.Google Scholar
Espitia, A., Pardo, S., Piermartini, R., and Rocha, N. (2022) ‘Technical Barriers to Trade’, in Mattoo, A., Rocha, N., and Ruta, M. (eds.), Handbook of Deep Trade Agreements. Washington, DC: World Bank, 345–365.Google Scholar
Freund, C. and Oliver, S. (2015) ‘Gains from Convergence in US and EU Auto Regulations Under TTIP’, in Hamilton, D. and Pelkmans, J. (eds.), Rule-Makers or Rule-Takers? Exploring TTIP. Rowman & Littlefield, 505–536.Google Scholar
Hoekman, B. (2020) ‘Facilitating Trade in Services’, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 9228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ing, L., Anandhika, R., Cadot, O., and Urata, S. (2019) ‘NTMs in ASEAN: Ways Toward Regulatory Convergence’, in Ing, L., Peters, R., and Cadot, O. (eds.), Regional Integration and NTMs in ASEAN. Jakarta: ERIA, 90–125.Google Scholar
Jafari, Y. and Tarr, D. (2017) ‘Estimates of Ad Valorem Equivalents of Barriers Against Foreign Suppliers of Services in Eleven Services Sectors and 103 Countries’, The World Economy 40(3), 544–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Josling, T. and Tangermann, S. (2015) ‘Agriculture, Food and TTIP: Possibilities and Pitfalls’, in Hamilton, D. and Pelkmans, J. (eds.), Rule-Makers or Rule-Takers? Exploring TTIP. Rowman & Littlefield, 259–296.Google Scholar
OECD (1994) Regulatory Cooperation for an Interdependent World. Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
OECD (2013) International Regulatory Cooperation, Addressing Global Challenges. Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
OECD (2017) International Regulatory Cooperation and Trade. Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
OECD (2021) ‘The Case of ASTM International’, www.oecd.org/gov/regulatory-policy/irc-astm-case-study.pdfGoogle Scholar
OECD & WTO (2019) ‘Facilitating Trade Through Regulatory Cooperation, the Case of the WTO TBT/SPS Agreements’, www.org/english/res_e/publications_e/tbtsps19_e.htmGoogle Scholar
Padilla, J., Davies, J., and Boutin, A. (2017) Economic Impact of Technology Standards. London: Compass Lexecon.Google Scholar
Pelkmans, J. (2012) ‘Mutual Recognition: Economic and Regulatory Logic in Goods and Services’, in Eger, T. and Schaefer, H.-B. (eds.), Research Handbook on the Economics of EU Law. Edward Elgar, 113–145.Google Scholar
Pelkmans, J. (2016) The ASEAN Economic Community, a Conceptual Approach. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pelkmans, J. (2023) ‘Reducing Regulatory Trade Costs : Why and How’, EUI RSC 2023/10 (Working Paper), https://cadmus.eui.eu/handle/1814/75496, April.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pelkmans, J. and Correia de Brito, A. (2015) Transatlantic MRAs: Lessons for TTIP. Brussels: CEPS Special Report, www.ceps.eu.Google Scholar
Pelkmans, J., Francois, J., Bekkers, E., Hu, W., Manchin, M., Mustilli, F., and Tomberger, P. (2018) Tomorrow's Silk Road, Assessing an EU-China Free Trade Agreement. Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Ruehlig, T. (2020) Technical Standardization, China and the Future International Order – a European Perspective. Brussels: Heinrich Boell Foundation.Google Scholar
Stone, S. and Casalini, F. (2022) ‘Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary Measures’, in Mattoo, A., Rocha, N., and Ruta, M. (eds.), Handbook of Deep Trade Agreements. Washington, DC: World Bank, 369–390.Google Scholar
WTO (2019) ‘The Future of Services Trade’, World Trade Report 2019. Geneva: WTO.Google Scholar