The disappearance of the border barrier in some European Union countries’ bilateral trade

Abstract

This paper estimates the tariff equivalent of the border barrier in each bilateral trade among European Union (EU) countries. The results show that there are large differences in the border barrier across EU countries’ bilateral trade. In some bilateral trade flows the border barrier has almost disappeared, whereas in other cases it is still equivalent to a 75% tariff. The results also show that some countries have low border barriers in most of their bilateral trade flows with other EU members, whereas other countries persistently present large border barriers.