How Do Differing Standards Increase Trade Costs? The Case of Pallets

The pallet is a platform used for storing, handling and transporting products. There are hundreds of different pallet sizes around the world. The case of pallets is examined to illustrate the impact of multiplicity of standards on trade costs. We select this case because pallets are used all over the world, pallet standards are not too sophisticated, and data on pallet standards and costs are to some extent available. The paper examines why there are so many different pallet standards, the associated trade costs and the reasons why countries have not harmonised pallet sizes to eliminate such costs. It then presents options for exporters to mitigate the adverse effects of standards multiplicity while complying with destination markets’ standard requirements. The range of options is limited for exporters from less developed countries because of the lack of rental and exchange pallet markets. To mitigate the costs of this multiplicity of standards, the international community's strategy should focus on developing awareness of the cost of multiplicity of standards and actively supporting standardisation.     

我国水产品出口欧盟遭遇技术性贸易壁垒的影响研究

文章对我国水产品出口欧盟遭遇技术性贸易壁垒的影响进行了实证的研究分析。研究发现,欧盟有关水产品及食品卫生法规(标准)对我国水产品出口有明显的阻碍作用,同时我国经济发展水平的增强以及无公害标准的制定和实施对我国水产品的出口有明显的促进作用。     

EU卫生标准对发展中国家渔业产品的影响及对策

欧盟对发展中国家渔业产品实施严格的卫生标准以及标准的多层次、复杂性和不统一形成了对发展中国家产品的技术性贸易壁垒,发展中国家为维持或拓展发达国家市场,付出了直接成本、间接成本、隐合成本和风险增加的代价.发展中国家可以通过产业共性技术研发在形成本国产业自主技术标准的基础上,与发达国家建立互认机制等来跨越TBT.     

Movements of People for Movements of Goods?

Whilst it is well established to think of international tourism as a type of exports, namely ‘home’ exports, the potential of tourism flows as an engine for fostering trade among countries is a poorly studied topic. In this paper, we show that this relationship can be studied at a very detailed level by exploiting the disaggregation of existing information on international trade and inbound tourism. We consider a sample of 25 countries belonging to the European Union, a region that has been interested by common shocks such as the establishment of the euro as the new currency for many countries and the liberalisation in the air transport market. We carry out a panel data analysis by means of which we assess whether international tourist arrivals by a given country activate additional exports towards the same country. We find not only that tourism can promote exports, but also that this effect displays important differences depending on whether or not consumption goods are considered. This finding is consistent with the idea that the experience of tourists in a given destination reduces the fixed costs of trade, thus facilitating access to the advantages of international trade for more peripheral economies.     

Trade barriers or trade facilitators? The heterogeneous impact of food standards in international trade

Recent research shows that the effect of food standards can be heterogeneous across sectors or countries: they sometimes act as barriers to trade, but in other cases may lead to increased trade. I present empirical evidence on Norwegian seafood exports showing that foreign food standards, measured by sanitary and phytosanitary notifications to the WTO, generally have a negative impact on total exports, the number of exporters and their average exports. However, for fresh seafood, there is a positive counteracting effect. I present a theoretical explanation for this, suggesting that food standards reduce consumer uncertainty about quality and safety and therefore increase demand.     

我国出口贸易环境成本内在化效应的实证分析与政策建议

从成本效应角度看,环境成本内在化对我国的出口贸易有负面影响;从创新效应角度看,环境成本内在化对我国出口贸易有正面影响。但综合起来看,创新效应对出口的积极影响弥补了成本效应对出口的消极影响,最终会促进中国出口。既然环境成本内在化有利于实现环境保护与出口增加的双赢,中国应当加强实施环境成本内在化政策,包括进一步提高环境标准、推进自然资源价格改革、改变排污收费政策等。中国实施环境成本内在化的政策应当是经济手段与管制手段并用,但若着眼于未来,应当逐渐转向以经济手段为主。     

How Do Exporters React to Changes in Cost Competitiveness?

Various international institutions such as the European Commission, the ECB and the OECD often use unit labour costs as a measure of international competitiveness. The goal of this paper was to examine how well this measure is related to international export performance at the firm level. To this end, we use Belgian firm‐level data for the period 1999 to 2010 to analyse the impact of unit labour costs on exports. We find an estimated elasticity of the intensive margin of exports with respect to unit labour costs between −0.2 and −0.4. This elasticity varies between sectors and between firms, with more labour‐intensive firms having a higher elasticity. The microdata also enable us to analyse the impact of unit labour costs on the extensive margin. Our results show that higher unit labour costs reduce the probability of starting to export for non‐exporters and increase the probability of exporters stopping. While our results show that unit labour costs have an impact on the intensive margin and extensive margin of firm‐level exports, the effect is rather low, suggesting that pass‐through of costs into prices is limited. The latter is consistent with recent trade models emphasising that not only relative costs, but also demand factors such as quality and taste matter for explaining firm‐level exports.     

The Impact of the U.S. Bio-Terrorism Act upon Canadian Exporters of Food Products to the United States: A Firm-Level Analysis

This article examines the impact of the 2002 U.S. Bio-terrorism Act (BTA) upon Canadian exporters of food products to the United States. A major goal of the BTA is to secure U.S. ports of entry against imports that might threaten the health or safety of U.S. citizens. Although this is a respectable goal, data from a sample of 144 Canadian exporters suggest that the BTA represents a non-tariff barrier to Canada-U.S. trade. Current regulatory procedures have disrupted cross-border supply chains in significant ways. These disruptions have damaged the Canada-U.S. commercial relationship by imposing extra shipment and distribution costs upon Canadian exporters. These delays have had a serious impact upon small-to-medium sized firms (SMFs). The article concludes with a brief discussion of possible remedial actions that might be taken by Canadian exporters.     

The role of inbound tourist flows in promoting exports

While it is established that tourism benefits growth through increased employment and investments, it is not well understood whether tourism has an effect on exports. This paper explores exports as an additional channel through which tourism affects domestic economic activity. Using bilateral tourist and trade flows, the paper explores the causal effect of tourist flows on exports. To deal with endogeneity, two instruments are constructed and subsequently used on two different sets of exporters, one of the instruments being the number of casualties due to terrorism in a country. We find that tourism affects mainly the exports of differentiated products. Specifically, we find that tourism benefits the exports from non‐OECD exporters of processed food products and this effect is only estimated for South–North trade with an elasticity close to 1. For European countries, the findings point in the same direction; tourism affects differentiated consumer products and processed food with elasticity close to 1, which adds plausibility to the earlier results. We also find a lagged effect for tourism mainly on the export of consumer goods (for the two samples) and processed food products (for European countries). The results suggest that exporting is an additional channel through which tourism can stimulate domestic economic activity in the tourist destination.     

European Union Market Access Conditions and Africa's Extensive Margin of Food Trade

This paper examines the impact of two European Union (EU) market access regulations in the food sector presumed to simultaneously affect firms’ decisions to export food products to the EU. We analysed EU pesticide standards on African exports alongside a complementary non‐tariff measure in the form of a minimum entry price regulation, which aims to protect EU growers of certain fruits and vegetables against international competition. Analysis was based on Africa's exports of tomatoes, oranges, and lime and lemon to the EU between 2008 and 2013, using the gravity model of trade. Our results show that EU market access conditions constitute significant barrier to the formation of new trade relation between the EU and Africa. In addition, initiation of trade relationships is contingent not only on market access conditions but also on domestic market constraints in Africa. These results imply that negotiating preferential entry prices duties and the removal of domestic market restraints as well as strengthening domestic capacity to comply with EU standards to enhance continuous market access for the continent could stimulate food trade along the extensive margin.     

外部需求与多产品出口企业创新:机理与事实

本文拓展了Mayer等的多产品理论模型,在多产品异质性框架下纳入企业创新行为,从微观视角揭示了外部需求变动对于多产品出口企业创新行为的影响,并分析企业生产率在其中扮演的"角色"。研究发现:外部需求扩张对多产品出口企业创新具有显著的抑制作用,但是分组回归结果表明,外部需求扩张对企业创新行为的影响存在生产率门槛,高生产率企业可以在需求扩张中提高创新水平,低生产率企业则降低创新水平;机制检验表明,外部需求扩张通过规模效应促进企业创新,通过竞争效应抑制企业创新,规模效应和竞争效应分别随企业生产率提高而强化和弱化;异质性分析表明,外部需求扩张对于多产品出口企业创新的抑制作用具有普遍性,一般贸易企业、民营企业、外资企业和高技术企业在外部需求扩张中提高创新水平的生产率门槛较低。本文为多产品企业有效应对外部需求变动、制定合理创新决策和推进对外贸易高质量发展提供理论依据和政策启示。     

欧盟在华直接投资对中国与欧盟贸易的影响

本文运用面板数据的方法,研究了欧盟在华直接投资对中国与欧盟贸易的影响,结论表明,欧盟在华直接投资促进了中国对欧盟各成员国的进出口贸易,但影响较小,影响中、欧贸易的主要因素是中国和欧盟各成员国的经济实力(GDP)。这表明欧盟在华投资企业的市场战略主要是针对中国广阔的国内市场的。文章最后部分对如何促进欧盟对华直接投资和扩大中、欧贸易提出了建议。     

关注欧盟化学品新贸易壁垒

本文分析了欧盟化学品新法规这一典型的新贸易壁垒，指出欧盟化学品新法规反映了贸易与环境的冲突和协调，欧盟化学品新法规对化学品市场的影响以及欧盟化学品新法规应进一步修改和完善的方面。文章指出，2006年实施的欧盟化学品新规定，必将对世界化学品及其下游产品的生产和贸易产生重大影响。     

Investing in consumer confidence through genetically modified labelling: an evaluation of compliance options and their marketing challenges for Australian firms

A significant number of studies have examined aspects of consumer responses towards genetically modified foods (GMFs). However, much of this effort has resulted in somewhat mixed findings which have not added real value in terms of providing viable directions for international and national organisations concerned with the labelling of GMFs. This is particularly true in an environment where labelling regulation is increasingly inconsistent and may therefore present real barriers to international trade and the marketing and sales of these food products.

The aim of this article therefore is to shed light on the extent to which the labelling impositions on genetically modified foods would impact on the overall viability of the GMF industry particularly from an international and firm perspective. To this end, a selection of literatures that cover labelling issues in Europe, USA, Canada and Australasia were distilled in order to better understand the pros and cons of labelling disclosures globally and from these present a platform for future marketing and implementation scenarios in Australia.

On the basis of this literature synthesis, we propose that the success of the GMF imperative is contingent on two levels of compliance. First, at the global level, there is need for greater international consensus regarding uniformity of standards of regulation that would allow for fair trade particularly through such bodies as the World Trade Organisation. By implication, Australia would require to adopt levels of compliance that are comparable to the stringent European Union requirements in order to be able to access those markets and any others. Second, we note that at the firm level, whilst production costs in developing appropriate labelling disclosures can be expected to rise on account of higher standards of compliance, these would be more than offset by the increase in consumer confidence as a consequence of the opportunity to make more informed choices. This in turn would generate positive Word of Mouth most likely resulting in increased uptake and adoption of GMFs generally thus allowing for disclosure costs to fall over time.     

Trade,Migration and Integration – Evidence and Policy Implications

This paper takes as its point of departure the unique position recently adopted by Swedish policymakers emphasising migration as a tool to increase trade. We attempt to empirically scrutinise this position. Our results demonstrate that migrants stimulate exports, especially along the extensive product margin of trade and for differentiated products, but have no significant impact on imports. This finding suggests that for small open economies where numerous immigrants are refugees, the strategy of using migration to facilitate trade may only be effective with respect to exports. This paper also contributes to the literature on trade and migration by exploiting data on gender and age, which allow us to draw inferences on the underlying impact channels. We adopt an instrumental variable approach to address the endogeneity issue due to potential reverse causality. The pattern of results is consistent with the hypothesis that migration primarily reduces fixed trade costs resulting from information and trust friction across migrant host and source countries. Importantly, the results imply that policymakers may be able to promote trade by improving immigrants’ labour market integration instead of simply being restricted to promoting more liberal immigration policies, which is generally more controversial.     

EC standards process: Why U.S. firms should participate

New European Community product standards and certification rules will have a major impact on US. sales there in coming years. With stronger European growth and the lower US. dollar creating broad opportunities for US. exporters, businesspeople must actively participate in the standards-setting process by commenting upon technical positions and draft proposals, both in the national standards organizations and in Europe-wide standards bodies.     

“一带一路”背景下中国与欧亚经济联盟贸易效率及贸易潜力研究

以中国对EEU成员国出口贸易为视角,运用SFGM模型,选取2009—2018年的中国与欧亚经济联盟的数据对贸易效率及贸易潜力进行了测度。研究结果表明,欧亚经济联盟各成员国的经济规模、双边政府廉洁、贸易自由度、物流绩效、OFDI、共同边界等对中国出口具有显著的促进作用,通货膨胀也对出口起到促进作用,但作用不显著。双边的地理距离、是否内陆国、关税税率、汇率等对中国出口欧亚经济联盟具有明显的抑制作用,汇率也具有抑制作用,但不显著。根据研究结论提出针对性的政策建议,即加强双边合作,提升清关效率,完善基础设施质量,便利贸易和运输效率,提高物流服务质量;进一步降低关税和非关税壁垒,提高商品运输的效率,清除双方隐性贸易壁垒;加强政府对金融机构的监管力度,加大信贷资金配置规模;积极推动中国与EEU成员国建立自贸区;实现双边资本、信息等资源的共享,从而提高贸易效率,减少贸易阻力。最终着眼于命运共同体及全球价值链视域,推动双边贸易发展。     

Product design and tort law: Safety implications of increasing similarity in civil liability and regulatory standards

This article addresses the impact of changes in design defect tort law on safety in the European Union and the United States, and draws two conclusions bearing significant product safety implications. First, tort law’s approach to design defectiveness is developing more cohesion. Although important differences in jurisdictional approaches remain, the differences appear to be diminishing rather than growing. In both the United States and the European Union, courts are increasingly relying upon a risk/utility balancing test to determine whether to impose civil liability for allegedly defective product designs. Second, the direction in which tort law is evolving is bringing it closer to defectiveness tests typically employed by government regulatory agencies in Europe and the United States. Civil liability standards are increasingly similar to regulatory standards used in determining whether a product should be allowed on the market at all. This trend toward greater cohesion in tort standards, and tort law’s increasing similarity to regulatory standards, has both positive and negative implications for safety. On the whole, the trend is likely desirable – it should encourage efficient products that are closer to an optional blend of safety and utility.     

Understanding Developing Country Strategic Responses to the Enhancement of Food Safety Standards

This paper explores the competing concepts of ‘standards as barriers’ and ‘standards as catalysts’ in the context of food safety standards in international trade in agricultural and food products. Through a review of existing evidence of the impact of food safety standards on developing country exports of agricultural and food products and the results of a series of country‐ and product‐specific case studies, it is suggested that food safety standards can act as both a barrier to trade and the basis of competitive positioning for developing countries in international markets. This suggests that broad conclusions about the trade effects of food safety standards on developing countries are problematic, rather the level and ways in which agricultural and food exports are impacted can be product, country, standard and even firm‐specific.