A Tariff Equivalent of Non-Tariff Barriers on European Horticultural and Fish Imports from African Countries

Despite the preferential market access granted to ACP countries by the European Union in the context of the EU-ACP partnership agreement, African exports of agricultural and food products to EU face some trade barriers. Evidence from the available literature shows that food safety standards and other non-tariff measures can act as trade barriers. Using an extension of the price-wedge method that takes into account imperfect substitution and factor endowment in monopolistic competition, this study provides ad valorem tariff equivalent of several international food safety standards. We apply this method to panel data of European imports of fruit, vegetables and fish from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. Empirical results show that the tariff equivalent is about 36 per cent for avocados, ranges from 40 to 92 per cent for fresh peas and green beans and goes from 12 to 190 per cent for frozen fish fillet. In addition, we observe a strong home-good preference of more than 99 per cent for frozen fish fillet and an important variation of the tariff equivalent for all the products among the EU importing countries and over time.