The Impacts Of Alignment Withglobal Product Standards On Exportsrnof Firms In Developing Countries

摘要

As traditional trade barriers, such as tariffs and quotas, have diminished in importance, increasing attention has been paid to the trade impacts of regulatory policies, such as technical regulations and performance requirements. There can be considerable benefits from more harmonised global standards, including economies of scale, product compatibility and consumer acceptance of imports. At the same time, it is costly to comply with international technical regulations, which therefore might be impediments to trade.rnThe compliance challenges are amplified for exporters in developing countries (DCs) that try to penetrate markets in industrial nations. Compliance costs may be significantly higher for such firms due to lower initial domestic standards. Nonetheless, compliance with industrial nations' standards may provide export gains to firms in developing countries due to larger demand for their products and greater incentives to upgrade quality and production processes (Ganslandt and Markusen, 2001; Jaffee and Henson, 2004).