1、 外文翻译 原文 Quantifying the Impact of Technical Barriers to Trade: A Review of Past Attempts and the New Policy Context Material Source: World Bank Author : Keith E. Maskus John S. Wilson This paper provides an overview of the policy debate and methodological issues surrounding product standards and te
2、chnical barriers to trade. There has been a rising use of technical regulations as instruments of commercial policy in unilateral,regional, and global trade contexts. These non-tariff barriers are of particular concern to developing countries, which may bear additional costs in meeting such mandator
3、y standards. We begin with a review of the policy context driving demand for empirical analysis of standards in trade. We then provide an analytical overview of the role of standards and their relationship to trade. The paper then explains justifications for voluntary standards and mandatory technic
4、al regulations. Standards have impacts on both static and dynamic market failures. We review methodological approaches that have been used to analyze standards. The main interest lies in advancing techniques that are practical and may be fruitfully extended to the empirical analysis of standards and
5、 trade.The contribution of the paper is to discuss a set of concrete steps that could be taken to move forward a policy-relevant and practical research program of empirical work. Such steps would include (1) administering firm-level surveys in developing countries, (2)devising methods for assessing
6、the trade restrictiveness of standards, and (3) establishing econometric approaches that could be applied to survey and micro data for understanding the role of standards in export dynamics. The impact of standards and technical regulations on trade is at the forefront of policy discussions.1 This i
7、s particularly true in relation to challenges confronting developing nations as they seek to increase production for global export markets. In regard to voluntary standards, such as those in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9000 series on quality for example, developing natio
8、ns face continued constraints in diffusing best practice information on standards and resources necessary to aid in the adoption of appropriate process and production methods (World Bank 2000). In addition, as traditional trade protection measures such as tariffs, quotas, and voluntary export restra
9、int (VER) agreements have been eliminated throughout the 1990s, barriers to trade reflected in use of domestic technical regulations have become much more important channels through which trade is blocked. There are a number of reasons why empirical work on technical and regulatory barriers to trade
10、 is particularly important in relation to the new trade agenda. Demand for empirical data and analysis of the trade impact of standards is being driven in part by the simple fact that tariff barriers and traditional non-tariff measures such as quotas have been significantly curtailed, as noted above
11、. We know a great deal more about how tariffs or subsidies affect trade and therefore the implications of further reductions in these protective measures to inform trade policy debate and decision making than is known about how non-tariff, technical barriers affect trade. There are demonstrable bene
12、fits associated with a priority focus on liberalization in goods for developing countries - including non-tariff barriers to trade in standards. Developing countries account today for 20 percent of world total exports in goods, with manufacturing totaling approximately 70 percent of overall exports.
13、 Reducing duplicative or discriminatory technical barriers, either through changes in the basis of mandatory standards themselves or through alterations in testing and certification requirements imposed on manufacturers should further accelerate trade. The new importance of empirical work on standar
14、ds is also reflected in the fact that there has been a rise in the incidence of technical regulations as instruments of commercial policy. Examples of disputes brought to the WTO, among others, highlight this fact. In response to increased pressures in the trading system as countries employ regulato
15、ry barriers to protect domestic firms, there have been increased calls for harmonization of standards and negotiation of Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) covering product testing and certification systems. In both these areas, developing countries have a special stake, as they have had only limi
16、ted involvement in standards development activities and lack much of the infrastructure necessary to support the modern testing protocols which an MRA requires. The next section of this paper addresses these topics as a way to understand the policy context driving demand for empirical analysis of st
17、andards and trade. The increased premium on empirical data to inform policy on trade-related technical barriers is based to a large degree on the simple nature of trade conflicts today. There has been a marked rise in the number of trade disputes over standards brought to the WTO during the past fiv
18、e years. The majority of these center on trade in agricultural products and obligations under the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards. The most high profile standards cases in recent years have been in agriculture, such as the dispute between the European Community and United States ov
19、er hormone treated beef. There is also rising trade tension generated over the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in agriculture which the trading system will need to address. Claims of violation of various provisions of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade have also been increasin
20、g since 1995. Disputes over domestic regulations affecting imports or the process and production methods through which goods are manufactured are becoming more important. As a consequence, the viability of WTO disciplines to address new areas where domestic regulation affects trade is being tested.
21、This will undoubtedly become more important as (economic activity continues to disperse around the world, exports of finished goods by developing countries that already have status to bring complaints in the WTO grow, and countries such as China, Russia, and Ukraine are brought into the WTO membersh
22、ip. Among the central questions in this debate concerns what constitutes an “international“ standard and related issues of risk. There are several conclusions from this brief review of the policy context in standards and trade in relation to economic research. First, it is clear that the rise in mul
23、tilateral trade disputes and pressures on the WTO system in non-tariff technical barriers demands new data sets and empirical analysis. As tariffs are eliminated, border barriers that may discriminate against foreign producers through mandatory standards, testing, or certification rules must be addr
24、essed. The key here, given the demands on trade policy, is a focus on areas where it is clear that government control is exercised through regulations on the import of a product which then affects the firms ability to produce to particular technical specifications or meet conformity assessment requi
25、rements and either WTO requirements as clearly specified in Uruguay Round Agreements, or high priority areas where it remains unclear the WTO disciplines are binding. Among the latter issues environmental standards tied to eco-labeling requirements, and the issue of what constitutes an “internationa
26、l“ standards, as specified in the TBT Agreement. The developing countries have particular interests in both these areas. The multilateral disputes taken to the WTO under provisions of the TBT and SPS Agreements, for the most part, all meet the test of clearly defined regulatory control exercised by
27、government. None of the cases involved voluntary standards competing in the market without regulatory intervention by government in some manner. A focus then on costs of divergent government health and safety regulations imposed on goods or agricultural products crossing national boundaries, seems a
28、ppropriate. To an important extent these observations about the benefits of standards apply across borders. Thus, a country that establishes product standards signals its product characteristics and standards preferences to foreign consumers and suppliers. Trade could be promoted as an extension of
29、the market-building impacts of standards.By adhering to compatibility requirements, countries can improve their integration with global information and telecommunication networks. However, standards and technical regulations also impose costs that could restrain competition. While this statement hol
30、ds for both domestic and international markets, it is useful to illustrate these costs in the context of international trade. The most straightforward problem is that costs of complying with standards may be higher for foreign firms than for domestic firms, implicitly erecting a trade barrier. Compl
31、iance involves one-time costs of product re-design and building an administrative system. It also involves recurrent costs of maintaining quality control and testing and certification. Thus, a rich menu of cost-raising possibilities exists in which varying standards can raise entry barriers (higher
32、up-front costs) or diminish the ability to compete (higher marginal costs). A variant of this problem is that firms must decide whether to establish a costly platform design that may be modified slightly to accommodate particular markets, or to design a product initially solely for the home market b
33、ut with costly modifications required for export. The former strategy is more common among larger enterprises, while the latter characterizes smaller firms (OECD,1999). In this context, the need to incur compliance costs can provide an advantage to large firms in global competition. This review of a
34、nalytical work demonstrates that standards are complex in intention and operation. Economic theory is ambiguous in its predictions about how technical regulations should affect trade. For example, propagating standards could assist a countrys export performance by guaranteeing quality and performanc
35、e characteristics. It could also raise import demand, further expanding trade. However, trade could be restricted if there is a cost-raising and discriminatory element to standards. Moreover, if standards expand scale but reduce variety the impact on trade would be unclear (Moenius,1999). Thus, the
36、key relationships are ambiguous and require empirical study. There remains considerable room for further applied theoretical work aimed at improving our understanding of how particular aspects of standards formation and operation affect behavior. The available literature tends to focus more on strat
37、egic aspects of international competition subject to cost-increasing standards issued by one country or a bloc of countries and less on the actual competitive impacts of particular standards. It would be fruitful, for example, to contrast the potential costs and benefits for lagging nations of harmo
38、nization versus mutual recognition agreements. Such policies might be complementary or offsetting in their effects on trade. They might also serve to exclude poor countries from the gains from standardization among richer nations, but we should know more about the circumstances under which that woul
39、d be true and prospective policy responses. 译文 量化技术性贸易壁垒的影响 :在新政策背景下对过去的政策的评价 资料来源 :世界银行 作 者： Keith E. Maskus John S. Wilson 这篇研究报告提供 了 一个关于产品标准和技术性贸易壁垒的政策讨论和方法问题 的概 要 研究。在单方区域和全球贸易领域里 把 制定技术限制作为一种商业政策的工具已经 越来越普遍，非关税贸易壁垒尤其对于发展中国家来说会使得它们为了 符合 这 些强制性的标准而增加成本费用。伴随着实证分析在标准化贸易中的 重要性， 我们首先应该回顾 下 政策的背景 ， 然
40、后我们将提供一个分 析透彻 的概观 ， 关于标准在贸易中 所扮演的角色和对贸易的影响。我们将阐述关于正当标准和强制性 技术法规存在的缘由 以及 标准无论是在静态和动态市场中都会导致 一定的负面性 。我们回顾了以前在解析标准上所运用到的方法 ， 主要的 重要性 在于进步的技术具有的实践意义以及其成效延伸到标准和行业的实证分析 中去 。本 次 研究的意义在于讨论一系列措施可以被运用到扩展相关联的有价值的政策和具有实践意义的实践经验的研究计划任务 中去 。这些措施包括：（ 1）在发展中国家制定高标准的研究方案。（ 2）制定一系列方法来评估行业间的标准。（ 3）建立计量经济学方 法，可以适用于 分析
41、研究微观数据 ，从而 了解标准在出口动力学里 所扮演 的角色。 贸易中的标准和技术法规应该放在政策讨论中的最 优先 位置。尤其对于首当其冲的发展中国家 而言， 为 其 扩大全球市场上的出口份额具有切实有效的研究价值。关于自愿标准，例如那些国际标准化组织 -质量监督体系 9000，发展中国家面对继续 被 扩散性 的 实践标准 所 约束 ，那么 资源信息有必要运用恰当的处理方法及 产品应该选择适合的 生产方式 (世界银行 2000)。另外，传统的贸易保护政策，例如：关税、配额限制、自愿出口限制等协定已经在 1990 年被废除了， 同时新的政策又 冒出，比如： 贸易壁垒 在 各国间出现，主要 的 反
42、映 是使用技术法规去限制贸易 ，这 已 成为 各国采用的 越来越重要的手段。 有许多原因经验可以解释为什么关于技术和贸易壁垒间的 调整 的 实证研究对于新的有关贸易的 的 议程尤为重要。实证数据 对于贸易的分析 以及标准对于贸易的影响 ， 已经被驾驭于是一部分关于关税壁垒和传统非关税措施 诠释 的 本科分割的内容 ， 例如配额 措施 已经 显著地 受到 限制 ，就是其中 一种 反映。关于关税、补贴是如何影响贸易，我们已收集到大量的资料， 这 对于 进一步减少这类保护措施对于行业间的公平竞争有着重大的意义，同时也了解到关于非关税 、技术壁垒对于贸易的影响。 对于一个优先关注货物自由化的发展中国家
43、，有着显而易见的利益 可言，例如非关税贸易壁垒标准。发展中国家到目前为止占有着世界总 出口量的 20%，而制造业就占了总的出口的 70%，减少重复性或歧视 性 技术 贸易壁垒，可以通过改变自己在强制性标准中的基础地位，抑或改变检测和证明程序， 这样 带来的成效会 在 促进制造业者的进一步贸易往来 中 有很大 反映 。 关于标准的实证性研究的一个新的重要 意义 在于它 反映 出的 作为商业政策工具的技术法规 的 影响范围 在 不断扩大。世贸组织关于这一研究讨论相对于其他领域 对之的研究 更突出这 个 意义 。 各国 面 对 着 在贸易体系中 承受 越来越大 的贸易壁垒 压力，正如为了保护国内产业
44、而做出的一系列国家间的雇佣监管制度 ，所以 关于产品测试和证书系统中统一标准和 MARS 的协商谈判的呼声已经 越来越大。在这些地区，发展中国家拥有的只是个特别的参与权，它们只限制参与标准的发展活动中，并不能完全发表自己的意见，纯属担任着听众的角色，这都因为这些国家缺乏必要的基础设施去支持 高科技的 现代检测 程序 ，而这些正是 MARS 所要求的。我们将 会进一步 说明在政策背景驱动下出现的关于标准和贸易的实证分析。 当今， 在技术性贸易壁垒实证数据分析中 ，一些国家采取 提高溢价的 政策 ，这 很大程度上是贸易冲突加剧的自然反应。 在过去的 5 年里，关于 WTO 所制定的贸易标准有着越来
45、越尖锐的争论。大多数都 把 关注 聚焦在 以 农产品为中心的贸易以及在卫生和植物检疫标准协议下 应承担的 职责 问题上 。近年来，很多反映标准的 典型 案件集中在农业领域 ，例如，欧洲共同体与美国之间的的关于加工后的牛肉激素问题的争端 ， 有的新兴的行业发生的剩余转基因生物在农业中的应用要 给予 说明 等等 。 各种关于技术性贸易壁垒协议的诉讼案自 1995 年就 呈 增 长趋势。 关于国 内相关 法 规 对 进口 的影响 和 应对这些法规 被制造的商品的生产方式 的 选择问题 及制造过程的讨论变得 越为重要，结果表明，世贸组织的可行性 研究 向这些已被证实的受国内 法 则影响的贸易做了阐述，
46、这 些研究 无疑成为更重要的作为经济活动继续向世界各地扩散的推动力 。 发展中国家 将 成品出口中所遇到的问题反馈给世贸组织，从而 使得 组织 向着有利于贸易 发展 的方向前进 ，这无疑体现了发展中国家的地位。例如中国，俄国，乌克兰纷纷 成为 世贸成员国。围绕着这次 研究 主题 进而又 涉及到关于如何制定一个国际性的标准以及相关的风险问题的讨论 。 从简要的有关标准、贸易以及经济研究的政策回顾背景中，我们可以 总结出：多边贸易争端 日益激烈， 这 对世贸组织关于非关税的技术壁垒所需要的数据资料 的搜集 和 进一步给予实证分析施加了巨大的压力。由于关税被消除，各国 设定 了 边界壁垒 ， 如：强
47、制性标准， 设立 高昂的测试和认证费用 等 抬高 国外制造商出口的 门槛 。应对这些，关键在于 收集、分析和研究国外的相关技术法规、技术标准等信息，及时了解国际市场上的技术性贸易壁垒的动向和走势，并结合自己的产品对相关内容进行吸收，以便采取相应对策。 这主要集中在一些 主要通过制定 商品 进口规则来行使政府对经济的控制的国家 ， 而且 政府的决策影响着企业生产特殊技术规定产品 和满足合格评定的能力，以及 更好的满足世贸组织需求和明确 由乌拉圭回合规定的协议 的能力 。对于世贸组织的规定 ，意识淡薄 的地区要优先加大这方面的政策宣传。关于 环境标准 如何与 欧盟生态纺织品 的要求更好的衔接 问题
48、以及如何构成 统一的 国际性标准的问题， 都应在技术性贸易壁垒协议 中有所说明 ，这是 发展中国家 都比较重视的 两个问题。 多边争端中采取世贸组织规定的技术性贸易壁垒，动植物卫生 检疫措施协议，在极大程度上，都能满足相关政府提出的 明确调整过的 检测标准。在公平竞争 且 没有政府 干预政策影响的市场中， 几乎不会出现 任何涉及到自愿标准的案件 。 在国际贸易中为了解决政府间的分歧性和 建立一个健康安全的政府形象所使用的 费用 将 分摊在商品和农产品 贸易 中 看似是合理的。 关于利益和标准的跨边界申请的意见尤为重要。因此，一个国家应建立产品标准尽量符合产品本身的特点，以及国外的消费者 、 需
49、求商的需求偏好， 那么 贸易将会 扩 大正如标准对于市场扩大所带来的影响 一样。国家 应该 坚持相容需求， 这样 可以 加速 它 们 信息 全球化 的进程和提高 通信网络 发展壮大 的综合能力。 标准，技术法规的制定增加了产品的生产成本从而相对抑制了竞争。这一说法不管是在国内 还是国际市场上都是成立的，这对于产品成本 在国际贸易中的前后关联 具 有实际性的作用的。最显而易见的问题就是为了遵守标准从而增加了产品的成本，使得国外企业产品价格高于国内企业的价格，无形中就形成了一种贸易壁垒，这就要求重新设计产品的成本预算以及建立一个管理体制。它也涉及 如何更好的控制因 维持 质量 ，测试和 认证 所带来的流动性成本 ， 从而，形成一个关于成本增加 所带来影响 的 多元化 菜单 ， 使 它 适应随时 变化 着的标准 ，从而及时采取有力的措施。它 既可以 应对因 产品 的前期成本 增加 而 提高 产品 进入 壁垒 的后果 ， 也可以 解决因 提高产品的 边际成本 而减弱产品的 竞争能力 的现状 。这个问题的另一种 层面解释就是公司必须决定是否建立一个 产品自由转化市场的平台 设计，可以略带改进从而调整一些 产品应对 特殊的市场需要，或者设计一个 针对 最初纯粹为国内市场提供的，但是伴随着高代价的改进被要求 改为 出口
