 The Determinants of Non-Tariff Barriers: The Role of WTO MembershipChin Lee () and Ak Che Rusli MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany Abstract: With the formation of the WTO/GATT, a substantial reduction of tariff barriers (TBs) was achieved, but many countries then tried to use more non-tariff barriers (NTBs) to achieve new trade protection. To date, about two-thirds of the countries in the world are members of WTO. This study aims to find the determinants of NTBs and ascertain whether the accession as a member of WTO can actually reduce the use of NTBs. The results indicate that WTO membership, tariff and unemployment exert a strong influence on the incidence of NTBs, while the exchange rate, political institutions and economic size are not significant factors. In addition, tariffs and NTBs are complementary. The finding also reveals that WTO member use NTBs to a lesser degree than do non-members of the WTO. Hence, we can conclude that accession to membership in the WTO reduces the use of NTBs. Keywords: Economic size; Exchange rate; Non-tariff barriers; Political institutions; Tariff; Trade protection; Unemployment; WTO (search for similar items in EconPapers) Published in International Journal of Economics and Management 1.9(2015): pp. 155-175 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:96864 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany Ludwigstraße 33, D-80539 Munich, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC. |
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