Transparency in Non-tariff Measures: An International Comparison

We construct an index of transparency in non-tariff measures based on notifications to the World Trade Organization under the agreements on sanitary and phytosanitary measures and on technical barriers to trade, the existence of a trade portal giving ready access to trade-relevant regulations, the existence of NTM data collected under the Multi-Agency Support Team classification, and the results of an experiment conducted between 2015 and 2016 where we asked for specific regulations concerning the import of a particular product on behalf of a private company. The resulting country ranking shows that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries are, by and large, the most transparent, but also shows that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states score well compared to other developing countries.

ERIA-DP-2016-23