UNCTAD TRAINS - Non-Tariff Measures

About
- How to
- What is new
- Glossary
  - I-TIP Definitions
    
    I-TIP
    
    Integrated Trade Intelligence Portal
    
    IN FORCE DATE
    
    The date when the measure is put in force, in I-TIP, is well known for trade defence measures (Antidumping, Countervailing, and Safeguards measures); in contrast, it may or may not be notified for SPS and TBT. The measures in agriculture (SSG, TRQ, XS, AMS) are defined in annual periods and here we use the start and the end of the year as in-force date and withdrawal date, respectively.
    
    WITHDRAWAL DATE
  - Intnl.Trade Concepts
    
    Non-tariff measures (NTMs)
    
    Non-tariff measures (NTMs) are policy measures — other than ordinary customs tariffs — that can potentially have an economic effect on international trade in goods, changing quantities traded, or prices or both. Each measure is classified by an NTM code from the UNCTAD Classification of Non-Tariff Measures and has an imposing country, an in-force date, affected countries, affected products, and may have a withdrawn date.
    
    Trade defence measures
    
    There are three types of measures grouped under this name: Antidumping, Countervailing, and Safeguards.
    
    UNCTAD
    
    UNCTAD is the principal United Nations body dealing with international trade, investment, and development issues. The primary objective of UNCTAD is to formulate policies relating to all aspects of development including trade, aid, transport, finance and technology. The conference ordinarily meets once in four years; the permanent secretariat is in Geneva.
  - Acronyms
    
    SPS
    
    Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures
    
    TBT
    
    Technical Barriers to Trade
    
    TDF
  - HS Glossary
    
    CHAPTER (HS)
    
    Two-digit category of Harmonized System classification, covering 96 Chapters. Codes "98", "99", and "00" are optional for country use.
    
    HEADING (HS)
    
    Four-digit category of Harmonized System classification. Each Heading has a complete description. The HS system has about 1241Headings since 2002.
    
    HS
    
    Harmonized System of codification and classification of merchandises: Known generally as Harmoized System (HS), this system is kept by the WCO, World Customs Organizations. This classification is designed to be used by customs administrations in external trade matters. It is now applied by almost all countries in the world. The classification was launched in 1988 and is updated each five years: the first revision is called HS-1992; second revision HS-1996; third revision HS-2002; fourth HS-2007; and the fifth is HS-2012. It is a multi-level classification whose most detailed level is six digits with more than five thousand items at this level, called "Subheadings". They are grouped into Headings (1241 items coded at 4 digits) and Chapters (96 items coded at 2 digits). There are also 21 Sections; Sections are not represented in the HS codification. See methodology for the particularities on how the HS and its different versions are used in I-TIP.
    
    SECTION (HS)
    
    Broadest Harmonized System category. The Harmonized System comprises 21 "Sections".
    
    SUBHEADING (HS)
    
    Most detailed international level of the Harmonized System (HS) classification, defined at six digits. In HS version 2012, there are 5205 Subheadings at six digits.
    
    TARIFF LINE
    
    Product classification level applied by countries. It goes deeper than the 6-digit common level of HS. In some cases, it has 12 digits.
- Methodology
- Map of the application
- Classifications used in the application
  - HS - Harmonized System
  - NTM - Non-Tariff Measures, interagency classification

Non-Tariff Measure data collection for TPP countries

Background:

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, concluded in October 2015 between Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam, covers a broad range of trade- and investment-related issues. Among those are non-tariff measures (NTMs), which are covered in several chapters of the agreement.

UNCTAD and the World Bank collect NTM data in a joint project for all 12 TPP countries. Data works for TPP countries have been financially supported by Canada, GRIPS, Japan and the United States. The National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) is an international premier policy school with the aim of contributing to the betterment of democratic governance around the world. Financial support has been coordinated by the Global EPAs Research Consortium (secretariat at GRIPS). Financial support is gratefully acknowledged.

Objective:

The objective of the project is to contribute to close the transparency gap and to support TPP negotiators and researchers to better understand the implications of TPP.

Activities

In a first phase NTM data are collected and updated using a standardized approach following the International Classification of NTM and the UNCTAD Guidelines to Collect Data on Official NTMs.

The data is available on the TRAINS NTMs data platform at i-tip.unctad.org as well as on the World Integrated Trade Solution (WITS) data platform at wits.worldbank.org.

In a second phase ad valorem equivalents for NTMs will be calculated jointly by the World Bank and UNCTAD.

Contact:

ntm@unctad.org