Non-Tariff Barriers on Trade among League of Arab States
-
Upload
mahmoud-fath-allah -
Category
Economy & Finance
-
view
147 -
download
2
Transcript of Non-Tariff Barriers on Trade among League of Arab States
Dr. Mahmoud R. Fath-Allah
Economist, League of Arab States
email:[email protected]
Seminar on Non-Tariff Barriers among OIC African Member Countries
Non-Tariff Barriers to Trade
among the League of Arab States
Contents
• PAFTA: an overview.
• Some implementation issues.
• NTBs among PAFTA members.
• League of Arab States and its mandate in NTBs.
PAFTA Overview• PAFTA is Pan-Arab Free Trade Area. it is a Regional Trade
Agreement among members of the League of Arab States (LAS).
• PAFTA targeting deeper integration throughout Customs Union
and Common Market. (Now, work in progress to achieve Arab
Customs Union).
• PAFTA has 18 member countries:
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Yemen,
Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Sudan, Libya,
Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria.
• PAFTA has two LDCs members (Sudan, Yemen) benefit from
special and preferential treatments.
Arab Merchandise Exports
and its share in World Exports(2010-2013)
2010 2011 2012 2013
Arab Exports 927031 1241721 1390244 1369423
World Exports 15300000 18327000 18404000 18784000
Share in World Exports 6.06 6.78 7.55 7.29
Economy
Documents
to export
(number)
Time to
export
(days)
Cost to
export (US$
per
container)
Cost to
export
(deflated US$
per
container)
Document
s to
import
(number)
Time to
import
(days)
Cost to
import
(US$ per
container)
Cost to
import
(deflated
US$ per
container)
Algeria 8 17.0 1,270.0 1,270.0 9 26.0 1,330.0 1,330.0
Bahrain 6 11.0 810.0 810.0 8 15.0 870.0 870.0
Egypt, Arab Rep. 8 12.0 625.0 625.0 10 15.0 790.0 790.0
Jordan 5 12.0 825.0 825.0 7 15.0 1,235.0 1,235.0
Kuwait 7 15.0 1,085.0 1,085.0 10 20.0 1,250.0 1,250.0
Lebanon 4 22.0 1,080.0 1,080.0 7 30.0 1,365.0 1,365.0
Libya 7 23.0 1,140.0 1,140.0 9 37.0 1,255.0 1,255.0
Morocco 4 10.0 595.0 595.0 6 14.0 970.0 970.0
Oman 7 10.0 765.0 765.0 8 9.0 700.0 700.0
Qatar 5 15.0 927.0 927.0 7 16.0 1,050.0 1,050.0
Saudi Arabia 6 13.0 1,285.0 1,285.0 8 17.0 1,309.0 1,309.0
Syrian Arab Republic 8 18.0 1,995.0 1,995.0 9 24.0 2,410.0 2,410.0
Tunisia 4 16.0 805.0 805.0 6 20.0 910.0 910.0
United Arab Emirates 3 7.0 665.0 665.0 5 7.0 625.0 625.0
Yemen, Rep. 6 29.0 1,065.0 1,065.0 9 27.0 1,560.0 1,560.0
Trading across boarders for selected Arab countries (2014)
Source: (World Bank and IFC, 2015)
Main obstacles in PAFTA Implementation
• Limited Intra-Trade.
• Rules of Origins is not completely applied.
• Non-Tariff Barriers is not eliminated.
• No progress in PAFTA Services Trade Agreement since 2007.
PAFTA Member countries developed a work program to eliminate, or, at least,
significantly reduce NTBs.
the NTBs negotiating committee is mandated to classify the NTBs applied by each
member country, and then to start negotiations for their elimination.
NTBs in PAFTA
PAFTA countries face trade constrains related to NTBs, mainly of the following kind:
• Quantitative barriers,
including import licenses, import bans.
• Financial barriers,
which entail an increase in the costs of import operations, such as; exaggerated office
operations fees. Additional taxes - the so-called “service payments” - are still widely used
and take different names (consumption taxes- accompanying duties, fuel differential duties,
etc.)
• Administrative barriers,
including procedures carried out at the border that can cause increase in time and cost
Technical barriers:
• the application of packaging,
• sanitary and environmental standards.
In fact, some member countries insist that commodities should meet national standards, even if
the commodities already meet international specifications.
In addition, some member countries order quarantine restrictions that actually impede trade
(Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Egypt).
Studies estimates the magnitude and incidence of non tariff barriers for some Arab countries on
the basis of a survey of the private sector.
The results indicate that:
• the cost of compliance with all non-tariff-related measures averages 10 percent of the value
of goods shipped.
• Freight costs and customs clearance are the main sources of non-tariff trading costs taken
into account in his study.
• the average company spent ninety-five workdays per year resolving problems with customs
and other government authorities.
• On average, unofficial payments associated with customs clearance accounts for only 1
percent of the value of shipments, but one-fifth of survey respondents reported paying
between 2 and 17 percent.
• Excessive delays result from the lengthy inspection and clearance process, the number of
documents and signatures needed to process a trade transaction, and frequent problems with
customs and other government authorities.
• a number of Arab countries, such as Egypt and Jordan, have improved the performance of
customs and freight costs in recent years.
Results of some studies on NTMs
• studies estimated that tariff equivalent to NTBs equals 32% on manufactured products and
29% on agriculture products.
• this results agrees with the survey undertaken by General Union of Chambers of Commerce,
Industry, and Agriculture in Arab Countries (GUCCIAAC)
• the following are some findings of GUCCIAAC’s survey:
Results of some studies on NTMs
0.0%
17.5%
35.0%
52.5%
70.0%
All
Goo
ds
Agri
cultu
re G
oo
ds
Ma
nufa
cure
d G
oo
ds
Va
lue
Axis
Overall Trade Restrictiveness index based on Applied tariff
Bown, Chad P. (2014) Temporary Trade Barriers Database, The World Bank. Available at http://econ.worldbank.org/ttbd/, June.
0.0
1.3
2.5
3.8
5.0
98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 2013
Egypt
0.0
0.3
0.6
0.9
1.2
1.5
2000 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 2013
Jordan
SG stock: imports subject to SG in effect
SG flow: imports subject to any newly initiated SG investigations only
0.0
0.2
0.3
0.5
0.6
2000 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 2013
Morocco
Import Coverage by All TTBs and Antidumping Only in Egypt, Morocco, and Jordan
LAS vision on NTBs
many ECOSOC resolutions defines NTBs as all procedures and constraints that
countries adopt to control their imports to protect specific domestic production
or restrict trade for environmental concerns. and mandated the Trade
Negotiation Committee to eliminate NTBs.
the importance of international technical assistance to Arab countries in
complying with WTO commitments and to enhance their trade competitiveness
and deeper integration
Thank You