Negotiations for Overcoming Non-tariff Barriers to Trade

Virtually all developed countries find some aspect of international trading arrangements unsatisfactory. It is a moot point whether existing arrangements are creating bad blood or whether bad blood is creating an exaggerated dissatisfaction with existing relationships. Whatever the direction of causation, however, the problem is multi-dimensional, extending over agriculture, conventional tariffs, non-tariff distortions and multinational corporations. It seems likely that international negotiations will embrace all of these (and possibly others besides). Non-tariff distortions of international competition, commonly referred to as non-tariff barriers, would be only a small part of the whole. Nevertheless, their importance should not be underestimated.