Beyond tariff evasion: bypass effect of FTAs to circumvent technical barriers

作者：Li, Yanyun; Lin, Faqin^*

来源：Review of World Economics, 2022, 158(4): 1085-1105.

DOI：10.1007/s10290-022-00455-4

• Free trade agreement
• Bypass effect
• Technical barriers to trade

Can free trade agreements (FTAs) evade technical barriers to trade (TBT)? Based on the FTAs and TBT notification of the United States, this paper addresses this question using detailed product-level trade data of the period 2000-2017. It shows that, for the products covered by the US TBT notifications, Chinese exports to third countries that are part of the FTA trade bloc with the US are positively correlated to the imports by the US from the same countries. However, the authors do not find a bypass effect of FTA in evading technical barriers as regards trade with several other countries. Furthermore, the bypass evidence is stronger for countries near China that have similar institutional qualities, better political relations with China, a larger Chinese population, an FTA, and commonality in language with China, and where the rerouting cost is low for Chinese exporters.

• 单位
  中国农业大学