Covid 19 and non-tariff measures

Abstract

Non-tariff measures are closely linked to the current COVID-19 pandemic. They play animportant role to protect human, animal and plant lives and to prevent pandemicoutbreaks, have been used frequently during the pandemic to achieve trade and nontradeobjectives and play an important role for the economic recovery from thedevastating economic and social effects of the pandemic. NTMs such as exportrestrictions have been used to prevent shortages of supplies of medical products inexporting countries as a reaction to increased domestic demands. At the same time,other NTMs have been adapted to facilitate imports of important goods. Transparencyin NTMs is important for traders. OECD (2019) finds that increased transparency onsanitary and phyto-sanitary (SPS) measures and technical barriers to trade (TBT) inregional trade agreements boosts trade by around 25 per cent. During the pandemic,transparency in NTMs coming into force during the pandemic was particularly grim.Most data were collected from news articles.The aim of this paper is to examine the various NTMs imposed by countries during theCOVID-19 outbreak and to attempt to assess the many implications these can have.