Non-Trade Barriers
Non-Trade Barriers (NTBs)
 The WTO considers measures like quotces,
import
licensing,
sanitary
regulations,
prohibitions, etc as Non-tariff measures (NTMs).
 According to the OECD, non-trade barriers
(NTBs) are defined as the instruments that are in
violation of the WTO law.
 The OECD includes those policy measures that
limit trade with no implied judgement on the
legitimacy or otherwise of these measures as
NTMs .
However, on many occasions NTMs were
considered as NTBs.
Baldwin defined NTM as, “any measure (public
or private) that causes internationally traded
goods and services, or resources devoted to
production of these goods and services, to be
allocated in such a way as to reduce potential
real word income.”
According to him, the following are the NTMs:
*Quotas and restrictive state-trading policies.
*Export subsidies and taxes.
*Discriminatory government and private
procurement policies.
*Select indirect taxes.
*Selective domestic subsidies.
*Restrictive customs procedures.
*Anti-dumping regulations.
*Restrictive administrative and technical
regulations.
*Restrictive business practices
*Controls over foreign investment
*Restrictive immigration policies
*Selective monetary controls and discriminatory
exchange-rate policies
*Measures to control the volume of imports
*Measures to control the price of imported goods
*Monitoring measures include price and volume
investigations and surveillance
*Technical barriers imposed at the border
*Non-tariff charges and related policies affecting
imports
*Technical barriers to trade
The Kennedy Round and Tokyo Round of
trade negotiations discussed the NTMs and
anti-dumping issues in detail. When the NonAgricultural Market Access (NAMA) was
discussed, the NTBs were dealt with
comprehensively.
However, many members sought to exclude the
following NTBs under WTO framework
regulations:
*NTBs relating to WTO Agreements such as
customs valuation, Import Licensing, Sanitary
and phytosanitary measures, etc that are not
subject to a specific negotiating mandate.
*NTBs relating to other WTO Agreements which
are also the subject of a negotiating mandate
*NTBs that are already part of the Doha
Declaration such as Trade Facilitation,
Transparency in Government Procurement,
services, etc
NTBs are considered important as about 530
entries, almost half of the total entries made
between 1995 and 2005, are NTBs.