Aviation: non tariff barriers or facilitation with a vengeance

Abstract

As international aviation markets become more open, interest is shifting from direct market access issues towards indirect and ancillary barriers to market access. A parallel can be drawn with the WTO trade negotiations, where non-tariff barriers are becoming more important than tariff barriers. In international civil aviation, the issue of indirect market access issues has normally been addressed under the term facilitation. The concerns over security and health in civil aviation have raised the concerns over indirect market access barriers to a new level of urgency. At the same time, the urgency of the security issue and technological developments create an opportunity to solve facilitation issues that could not be addressed before. The EU-US aviation negotiations show a possible way forward to put this development to good use. Further reflection on trade facilitation should take place in WTO to make use of these possibilities.