ANNOUNCEMENTS
Regulations under the Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures (SPS) and the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) are permissible as per the WTO stipulations. These non-tariff barriers to protect human, animal and plant health as well as environment and wildlife play an important role in the conduct of international negotiations. A general view held in this regard in the past literature is that with the reduction in tariff barriers there is a tendency for non-tariff measures to increase. However the presence of these measures in the developed country markets is a major cause for concern especially for its developing country partners. At this juncture, the present study attempts to analyse the trends in exports from India to the US with the SPS and TBT measures notified in WTO based on the database prepared by Centre for WTO Studies, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT). The database captures the individual member notifications and its link to the relevant HS codes classification.
The results of inventory approach and the modified revealed comparative advantage reveal that the impact of SPS and TBT measures vary even within broad sectors of agriculture, chemicals and manufacturing, thus suggesting that product specific characteristics guide the impact of such standards. A key factor highlighted from this study is the structure of competing countries in determining the impact of SPS and TBT measures on the export shares of a product.
