Estimating the Impact of Environmental SPS and TBT on International Trade
Integration and Trade Journal, Vol. 22, No. 3, 2005
Posted: 31 Aug 2008
Date Written: 2005
Abstract
According to the WTO rules, governments are allowed to take measures in order to protect human health, as well as animal and plant health, provided that the enforced measures are not disguised protectionism. Whether measures enforced under the SPS and TBT agreements do not translate into unnecessary barriers to trade is a key issue. Contrasting with previous studies focusing on single cases, we adopt an econometric approach tackling the impact of such measures on trade, across countries and industries. Our findings generalize previous findings, with a predominance of negative impacts on trade of certain products, while an insignificant or even positive impact is observed for other products.
Keywords: Non-tariff barriers, SPS, TBT
JEL Classification: F13, F18
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation