Trade and Investment Barriers (Part II)

Author: Wang Shichun, Chen Wenjing (editors)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-04-01
Features: This book is mainly compiled based on trade barrier reports made by the United States and the European Union on their trading partners. This can be clearly seen from the perspective of the expression of the content in the text. In terms of format, U.S. trade barriers are divided into 10 categories, covering various government-imposed policies and measures that restrict, prohibit, or hinder international trade and service flows. These include: import policies, such as tariffs and other import taxes, quantitative restrictions, import licenses, and tariff barriers; standards, testing, labeling, and certification measures, including the implementation of unnecessary restrictive sanitary and phytosanitary standards and environmental measures, as well as the refusal to accept self-certification by foreign manufacturers that meets the standards of the products; government procurement, such as "domestic goods" policies and non-open bidding; export subsidies, such as export financing incentives and agricultural export subsidies; intellectual property protection, such as inadequate patent, copyright, and trademark management systems; trade barriers in services, such as restricting the scope of financial services provided by foreign financial institutions, regulating international data flows, and limiting foreign data processing; investment barriers, such as restricting foreign equity stakes, limiting access to foreign government-funded R&D projects, local content and export performance requirements, and restrictions on profit and capital transfers; anti-competitive practices permitted by foreign governments that affect trade, such as anti-competitive practices by state or private enterprises in services and goods, which limit the sales of foreign products; trade-restrictive measures affecting e-commerce, such as tariffs and non-tariff measures, cumbersome and discriminatory regulations and standards, and discriminatory taxes. Other barriers, which are measures spanning more than one category, such as bribery and corruption, as well as measures that only affect one industry sector.