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Technical Barriers to Trade in the European Union: Importance for Accession Countries
Author(s) -
Brenton Paul,
Sheehy John,
Vancauteren Marc
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
jcms: journal of common market studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.54
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1468-5965
pISSN - 0021-9886
DOI - 10.1111/1468-5965.00288
Subject(s) - accession , harmonization , technical barriers to trade , european union , tariff , international trade , market access , business , trade barrier , international economics , negotiation , single market , product (mathematics) , customs union , principal (computer security) , economics , political science , ecology , physics , geometry , mathematics , acoustics , law , biology , agriculture , computer science , operating system
With trade in industrial products between the EU and the countries of central and eastern Europe (CEECs) now essentially free of tariff and non‐tariff restrictions, the principal impact of accession to the EU on trade flows will be through access to the single market of the EU. A key element of this will be the removal of technical barriers to trade. In this article we try to highlight the potential importance of technical barriers to trade between the EU and the various CEECs, distinguishing between sectors according to the different approaches to the removal of these barriers in the EU: mutual recognition, detailed harmonization (old approach) and minimum requirements (new approach). We use two sources of information on technical regulations: a sectoral classification from a previous study of the impact of the single market and our own detailed translation of EU product‐related directives into the relevant tariff codes. The analysis suggests that the importance of technical barriers varies considerably across the CEECs. The adjustment implications of access to the single market are likely to be greatest for those most advanced in their accession negotiations.