Market Access For Developing Countries

15 Pages 3654 Words

share of the AVEs shown in Table 1. A specific tariff, an absolute amount of money charged per unit of imports regardless of the price (for example, €350 a ton on sugar imports into the EU), is generally regarded as less transparent and more distortionary than an ad valorem tariff. With tariff-rate quotas, the tariff is different above or below a specific quantity or value of imported items. Tariff-rate quotas, established under the Uruguay Round, were originally intended to ensure minimum market access for sensitive products. However, out-of-quota tariffs can be prohibitive, and even in-quota tariffs are often high.
Tariff peaks and tariff escalation. Although average industrial tariffs have dropped, between 6 and 14 percent of Quad (Canada, the EU, Japan, and the United States, in World Trade Organization (WTO) parlance) tariff lines are subject to "tariff peaks" (tariffs at or over 15 percent). In Canada and the United States, tariff peaks are concentrated in textiles and clothing, in the EU and Japan, in agriculture, food products, and f...