Small Trade Flows, Compliance Costs and Trade Preferences: The Case of EU Imports from African LDCs

23 Pages Posted: 18 Dec 2011

See all articles by Lars Nilsson

Lars Nilsson

European Commission, DG Trade

Caroline Dotter

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Date Written: 2011

Abstract

Previous work has shown that a significant number of preference eligible goods are imported into the EU from developing countries at relatively small values and that the rate of preference utilisation of these imports are low and in many cases zero. This fact is unobserved in the aggregate figures and thus rarely noticed. This paper examines this phenomenon further by using monthly data on EU imports from African LDCs at the lowest level of (publicly) available aggregation thereby coming close to transaction level data. It identifies the average values of preference eligible imports, utilising and not utilising preferences, by country and product category and test their empirical relevance for explaining the African LDCs' preference utilisation rates.

Keywords: trade preferences, preference utilisation, small trade flows, compliance costs, LDCs

JEL Classification: F13, F15

Suggested Citation

Nilsson, Lars and Dotter, Caroline, Small Trade Flows, Compliance Costs and Trade Preferences: The Case of EU Imports from African LDCs (2011). Economics Discussion Paper No. 2011-42, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1974110 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1974110

Lars Nilsson (Contact Author)

European Commission, DG Trade ( email )

Brussels
Belgium

Caroline Dotter

affiliation not provided to SSRN

No Address Available

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