The purpose of this paper is to measure and analyse how intensively CIS countries apply nontariff barriers (NTBs) to restrict foreign trade in regard to certain products and total trade. Five CIS countries were selected for this analysis, in particular Ukraine, Russian Federation, Moldova,...

Institutional harmonization is an important part of European integration, and its effects are more far reaching than the effects of trade liberalization. In its policy towards neighbors (the European Neighborhood Policy, ENP), the EU puts a lot of stress on the desirability of institutional...

This paper discusses the nature, importance, and measurement of non-tariff barriers (NTBs) in services trade with particular reference to telecommunications services. It is shown that although more effectively addressed for the telecom sector at the multilateral level than for other service...

The aim of this study is to estimate the impact of the removal of NTBs in trade between the EU and its selected CIS partners: Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan (CIS5). The report includes a discussion of methodologies of measurement of non-tariff barriers and the impact of their...

The WTO TBT Agreement obliges governments to use international standards as a basis for regulation, yet leaves a degree of flexibility with respect to the choice of standard, and the manner of its use. This interplay between obligation and flexibility has given rise to tension in various fora of...

This paper analyses the effects of non-tariff barriers, in terms of both variable and fixed export costs, on trade structure. The relationship between fixed and variable trade costs determines whether international trade emerges. If trade emerges, only variable, but not fixed export costs,...