What do you mean by trade barriers?

Trade barriers mainly refer to various restrictive measures taken by a country to import foreign goods and services.

Broadly speaking, all kinds of artificial measures that hinder normal trade and interfere with the role of market competition mechanism belong to the category of trade barriers.

Such as import duties or other tariffs with the same effect; Various quantitative restrictions on the circulation of commodities; Various discriminatory measures or practices between producers, buyers or users (especially in terms of price or trading conditions and freight); Various subsidies granted by the state or various special burdens imposed by the state; And various restrictive practices for dividing the market scope or seeking extra profits.

Although great progress has been made in tariff liberalization, commodity trade liberalization and labor trade barriers promoted by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, little has been achieved in other aspects. Some forms of trade barriers have been weakened, while others have been strengthened, and various new trade barriers have emerged one after another.

With the increasing number of members of international trade organizations such as WTO and the establishment of regional organizations such as NAFTA, the tariff barriers of these two organizations to non-member countries are still playing a role. But it is worth noting that the role of non-tariff barriers in the world is on the rise, or there is an upward trend.

Some developed countries use their technological advantages to require products from other countries to be certified, which greatly hinders the export of manufactured goods from underdeveloped and developing countries; But only some primary products of resources can be produced. It has aggravated the economic and trade development gap between the North and the South.

The causes of trade barriers

1. With the social progress and the improvement of people's living standards in developed countries, people's awareness of safety and health has never been stronger, and they are paying more and more attention to the impact of products on their own health and safety, so that new trade barriers with health, safety and hygiene as the main content in international trade are increasing.

2. With the improvement of environmental awareness, the concept of sustainable development is deeply rooted in people's hearts, and people are increasingly concerned about the sustainable development of the earth and society on which they live, so it is required that the products themselves and their production and processing processes in international trade should not be at the expense of destroying the environment or sacrificing the environment; At the same time, it is required that the production of these products cannot be at the expense of workers' health. Therefore, new trade barriers such as green barriers and social barriers will appear constantly in international trade.

3. The increasing number of new trade barriers has much to do with the suppression of traditional trade barriers. The use of traditional trade barriers such as tariffs, licenses and quotas will not only be restricted by international conventions and condemned by international public opinion, but also be vulnerable to reciprocal retaliation. Therefore, there is not much room for the development of these traditional trade barriers in the future, which provides a huge room for the development of new trade barriers such as green barriers.

The rapid development of science and technology provides conditions and means for the development of new trade barriers. The proportion of technology-intensive products in international trade is increasing, especially information technology products, which involve complex technical problems and are easy to form new trade barriers. At the same time, the development of high-sensitivity and high-tech testing instruments has greatly improved the accuracy of testing and provided technical and material conditions for some countries to set up new trade barriers.

Due to the weak economic growth, major developed countries have a tendency of rising trade protectionism. With the weakening of traditional trade barriers, they seek new trade barriers to protect domestic industries.