Effects of non-tariff measures on European horticultural and fish imports from African countries

(eng) The African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries benefit from preferential market access to the European Union (EU) thanks to the EU-ACP Partnership Agreements and their eligibility to the EU’s Generalized System of Preferences and Everything But Arms initiative. Despite these trade preferences, ACP countries have not improved accordingly their trade performance into the EU. There is a growing concern emerging through the literature that non-tariff measures (NTMs) could constitute a serious handicap to the full participation of these developing countries in the multilateral trading system. In this context, the present dissertation provides first an ad valorem tariff equivalent of a set of public and private-sector NTMs applied by the EU countries on horticultural and fish imports from East African countries. Using the price-wedge method in a context of imperfect substitution of Armington (1969) and differences in factor endowment, we find tariff equivalents averaging between 40 and 60 per cent for horticultural products and exceeding 200 per cent for frozen fish fillets during the EU ban period. Second, using a gravity model from Anderson and van Wincoop (2004) where our generated tariff equivalent is taken as a component of trade costs, we find that the European NTMs do not affect trade of green beans but significantly reduce imports of frozen fish fillets. Third, we conceptualize a stylized Nash (1950) bargaining game and show that Kenyan small-scale horticultural farms are likely to be excluded from the certified export supply chain following high compliance costs with stringent standards. Empirically, we show through a bivariate probit estimation that contracting decision is strongly linked to credit access. Finally, interesting policy implications of our results and suggestions for future research areas are outlined.