Trade in Tasks, Tariff Policy and Effective Protection Rates

Albeit nominal tariffs have been decreasing in the past decades, the rise of global manufacturing along global value chains lead to their accumulation along the international supply chain. From a "trade in tasks" perspective, Effective Protection Rates provide important insights on the impact of tariffs on the international competitiveness of national industries. Using the OECD-WTO Trade in Value-Added TiVA database, we analyse the evolution of effective protection in about 50 developed and developing countries from 1995 to 2008, including the role of preferential agreements on EPRs as well as the impact of tariffs on the production cost of services. A final chapter explores the existence of underlying economic factors that may stand behind EPR profiles