Transactions Costs Perspective of Non-Tariff Barriers to Trade: An Analysis of Food and Agricultural Exports from Guyana Using Survey Data

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article investigates factors that raise the transaction costs associated with complying with non-tariff regulations with an emphasis on the quality of contracting by public institutions responsible for enforcing compliance with regulations. A priori, a conceptual model is developed that identifies and tests factors that can make the compliance process unnecessarily burdensome. This is applied to 74 exporters of food and agriculture products from Guyana. The results are analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and indicate that transaction costs largely range from low to medium. However, delays are a major concern and emanate from institutional inefficiencies, which necessitates capacity building.