Intelligent Management Systems for Overcoming Global Trade Barriers

Abstract

Despite the fact that global trade remains the lifeblood of economic growth, there are still numerous obstacles to the movement of goods and services between countries. These barriers take two main forms, namely, tariff barriers (taxes imposed on imports) and non-tariff barriers (NTBs) such as regulatory standards, customs procedures, sanitary requirements and administrative requirements. World Trade Organization (WTO) estimated that non-tariff barriers cost the world traded goods as much as 10-20% ad valorem tariff, which is unfairly burdened on the developing countries [1]. As shown in Graph 1 below, Brazil experiences trade barriers costs of over 24% of trade value, and when adding non-tariff costs Brazil comes to 27.7% – much higher than Germany's 5.0%.