A Study On The Technical Barriers To Trade In Regional Trade Agreements

Since the 21st Century, more and more countries are keen on building Regional Trade Agreement (RTA) which is more flexible due to the slow process of multilateral negotiations. Meanwhile, since the global tariff levels have been reduced to a relatively low level, Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) has become the most preferred tool of trade protection in developed countries and some developing countries, especially after the 2008 global economic crisis. Based on this phenomenon, the processing TPP and RCEP which are the representative of the new-type RTA negotiations begin to shift the focus to non-tariff areas, especially TBT issues. Since 2001, China has been actively participating in the process of regional economic integration. Now, the elimination of TBT among member states under the framework of RTA has also become one of the main objectives of China’s RTA negotiations.This paper takes China’s RTA for example. By using the methods of comparative analysis and empirical research, this paper makes the comparison of the TBT issues in RTA on both horizontal and vertical level, and examines the potential economic effects which can be achieved by reducing TBT under the framework of RTA. Firstly, beginning from the concepts of TBT and RTA, we did the literature review of the research on the theoretical analysis of the economic effect of RTA, TBT and TBT in RTA. Then, the historical and current analysis of the TBT issues in China’s RTA is followed, together with the international comparison with EU and NAFTA. Next, taken RCEP as an example, this paper quantitatively investigates the economic effects of reducing TBT under the framework of RTA by using GTAP model. At last, this paper gives suggestions about how to reduce TBT under RCEP from the overall framework and specific provisions aspects individually.The empirical results indicates that achieving zero-tariff within RCEP has positive effects on GDP, welfare and trade-scale to almost all member states, and this positive effect will be continuously increased with the gradual elimination of TBT within RCEP. As for China, the promotion effect is also very significant, and there is even a double-added trend of the promotion effect with the gradual elimination of TBT within RCEP. In addition, on the sectoral level, achieving zero-tariff within RCEP, especially with the gradual elimination of TBT within RCEP, will have a selective promotion effect on China’s sector output which is conducive to the upgrading of China’s industrial structure. China should make full use of this opportunity to actively promote the elimination of TBT within RCEP. On one hand, it can make RTA bring greater economic benefits. On the other hand, it also can make use of the external force to promote the natural upgrading of China’s industrial structure.