Research and business surveys show that non-tariff barriers play an important role as constraints on the movement of goods and services in the EAEU. The Chief Economist of the Eurasian Development Bank Evgeny Vinokurov told.
According to him, they often neutralize the positive effects resulting from easier market access due to trade liberalization in the form of lifting tariff restrictions. Non-tariff measures can be conditionally divided into two groups. The first includes sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers in trade, quotas, prohibitions and quantitative control measures. The second group includes measures of price control and measures affecting competition (the institution of special importers, restrictions in the field of sales and government procurement, subsidies).
«Non-tariff barriers can negatively affect foreign trade flows within the existing export basket, make it difficult for new products to enter the market and prevent the emergence of new trading partners. In practice, non-tariff barriers hinder trade more than low import duties. Without a successful fight against them, efficiency of the common customs space is sharply reduced,» Evgeny Vinokurov believes.
