A mapping of regional rules on technical barriers to trade

The Evolution of the Treatment of Agriculture in Preferential Trade Agreements

“…10 60% of the 404 PTAs analysed by Baccini et al (2011) and 83% of the 70 PTAs analysed by Piermartini and Budetta (2009) were found to contain TBT provisions. No distinction was made in either of these studies between provisions relevant to agriculture and those that were not.…”

“…10 Agreements entering into force from 1995 onwards are reportedly significantly more likely to contain TBT provisions than earlier PTAs, indicatingsimilar to trends in SPS provisionsthe transposition of the WTO TBT Agreement into subsequent PTAs (WTO, 2017). Although studies (Fulponi, Shearer and Almeida, 2011;OECD, 2015) have found that these provisions do not go much beyond the general requirements of the WTO agreement, there are notable exceptions, including the agreements governing the European Union, which has adopted the principle of mutual recognition of both product standards and conformity assessments, and actively pursues harmonisation of product standards (Piermartini and Budetta, 2009). As with SPS measures, TBT measures are most likely to be included in agreements between developed and developing countries and are least likely to feature in agreements among developed countries (Baccini et al, 2011).…”

“…In addition, a number of studies have focused on coding specific provision areas across a smaller number of agreements. These areas include goods market access (Estevadeordal, Shearer and Suominen, 2009); trade remedies (Viljoen [2016], Crawford, McKeagg and Tolstova [2013] and Kruger, Denner and Cronje [2009] on safeguards and Teh, Prusa and Budetta [2009] on trade remedies more generally); TBTs (Piermartini and Budetta, 2009); intellectual property (Valdés and McCann, 2014;Elsig and Surbeck, 2016); and competition (Solano and Sennekamp, 2006). More recent studies include OECD analysis (World Bank, publication forthcoming) of SPS provisions across 283 agreements notified to the WTO and in force, as part of a broader World Bank study on regional trade agreements.…”

The Openness of National Economies: The World and Russia

“…Secondly, it may hinder further multilateral liberalization. A recent study (Piermartini and Budetta, 2009) has found evidence of distinct "families" of PTAs with differentiated rules on technical barriers to trade. The study shows that a number of regional arrangements that have the European Union as the hub include provisions to harmonize the standards of the spoke partner country to EU standards.…”

“…Data reported here on TBT provisions in PTAs are taken from a study by Piermartini and Budetta (2009) of 70 PTAs that differ in terms of geographical characteristics, level of development and the extent of intra-regional trade. Fifty-eight of the 70 PTAs surveyed contained TBT provisions.…”