principles and provisions of the WTO Agreement on TBT as a yardstick for analysis, this paper examines whether and how eight … major regional integration agreements within the African region address TBT issues. It finds that TBT are not an important … issue in Sub-Saharan African RTAs. Only one of the 8 agreements surveyed refers explicitly to the WTO TBT Agreement …

"technical barriers to trade" (i.e., technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures) in selected bilateral … to Trade, and with each other. The study reveals that most provisions regarding technical barriers to trade (TBT … practices and TBT-related infrastructure in member countries (e.g., through regional consultation fora and joint standardisation …

While there is a large literature on the economic theory of international standards, and their presumed effects, we … know much less about how international standards work in practice. This paper reviews the body of empirical work that has … investigated the specific question: How international standards impact on international trade? Do they help or hinder trade? The …

To what extent are governments drawing on relevant international standards in their technical regulations, as mandated … by the WTO TBT Agreement? A number of sources of data exist, including electronic databases maintained by governments … standards in regulation in any sector, as a basis for effective monitoring of the actual extent of use of international …

This paper evaluates the different approaches to quantifying the trade impact of standards in the agri-food sector. The … the impact of standards on market segmentation are also examined. Since both the level and design of a standard are … standards regimes. On the other hand, ex post empirical estimation is preferable when the level of the standard is more …