Trade in the 21st century may face lower tariffs, but regulations that affect international trade in goods and services have proliferated. While regulations are important for many public policy objectives, different and complex non-tariff measures can become unnecessarily costly trade barriers...

It has become increasingly common to produce goods in a number of geographically dispersed stages linked by international trade. This tendency, known by names such as “production fragmentation”, 'processing trade', and 'vertical specialization', has important implications for the analysis of...

This paper provides an overview of trade reform in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) since 1996 and a quantitative assessment of potential effects on trade patterns and tariff revenue of the current reform agenda. Despite evidence of significant trade complementarities within...

This paper investigates how trade flows are being affected by new discriminatory measures implemented during the global financial crisis. We match data on behind-the-border measures (e.g., bailouts and subsidies) and border measures implemented through April 2010 to monthly HS 4-digit bilateral...

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...

This paper presents promising methodologies for modeling and quantifying nontariff barriers (NTB) to trade in the agricultural and food sectors. We limit the analysis to sanitary, phytosanitary, and technical regulations that can have an impact on trade and to methods that provide some...

This paper aims to assess the role of non-tariff barriers (NTBs) for new member states (NMSs) exports in the agri-food sector, in the period just before the EU accession actually stepped into force. The assessment is based on a detailed sectoral gravity model, which was enhanced with inclusion...