Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/81390 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
IFN Working Paper No. 848
Publisher: 
Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN), Stockholm
Abstract: 
A main component of customs unions is a common trade policy on imports from non-member countries. Trade policy covers both tariff and non-tariff barriers like trade procedures. We argue that since trade procedures vary markedly across EU countries, the EU is not, strictly speaking, a customs union. To illustrate this, we estimate the impact of trade procedures on exports from non-EU countries and find a highly statistically significant and negative effect. Simulating what the effects would be of harmonizing trade procedures, i.e. to actually complete the EU customs union, we find that aggregated exports to the EU would increase by 20 percent for the average exporter.
Subjects: 
Customs Union
Economic Integration
European Union
Time Delays
Trade Facilitation
Trade Procedures
JEL: 
C23
F15
O24
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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