Eliminating Excessive Tariffs on Exports of Least Developed Countries

Although average OECD tariffs on imports from the least developedcountries are very low; tariffs above 15 percent (peaks) havea disproportional effect on their exports. Products subjectto tariff peaks tend to be heavily concentrated in agricultureand food products and labor-intensive sectors, such as appareland footwear. Although the least developed countries benefitfrom preferential access, preferences tend to be smallest fortariff peak products. A major exception is the European Union,so that the recent European initiative to grant full duty-freeand quota-free access for the least developed countries (theso-called Everything But Arms initiative) will result in onlya small increase in their exports of tariff peak items (lessthan 1 percent of total exports). However, as preferences areless significant in other major OECD countries, a more generalemulation of the European Union initiative would increase theleast developed countries' total exports of peak products byUS$2.5 billion (11 percent of total exports). Although almosthalf of this increase is at the expense of other developingcountry exports, this represents less than 0.05 percent of theirtotal exports. This trade diversion can be avoided by reducingtariff peaks to a uniform 5 percent applied on a nondiscriminatorybasis. However, such a reform would imply no gains for the leastdeveloped countries, suggesting that the globally welfare-superiorpolicy of nondiscriminatory elimination of tariff peaks shouldbe complemented by greater direct assistance to poor countries.