Agriculture in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership: Tariffs, Tariff-Rate Quotas,nand Non-Tariff Measures. Report Summary.

摘要

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) is being negotiated between the United States and the European Union (EU). The two regions accounted for almost half of global gross domestic product (GDP) in 2013 and $35 billion in bilateral agricultural trade. While overall tariffs in the United States and EU are generally low, they are still relatively high for food and agricultural goods, most often in the form of tariff-rate quotas (TRQs). Additionally, U.S.-EU trade is restricted by other significant barriers, such as non-tariff measures (NTMs) that are especially prevalent for many agricultural commodities. NTMs are usually not considered in trade policy analysis because they are not easily quantified, leading to several data, methodological, and conceptual challenges. These issues have been prominent in the T-TIP negotiations, and an analytical approach to help understand their impacts on food and agricultural trade may benefit all stakeholders.