Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics

Working Paper Series,
Research Institute of Industrial Economics

No 848: Completing the EU Customs Union. The Effects of Trade Procedure Harmonization

Maria Persson () and Yves Bourdet ()
Additional contact information
Maria Persson: Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN), Postal: and Lund University, P.O. Box 7082, SE-220 07 Lund, Sweden
Yves Bourdet: Lund University, Postal: Lund University, P.O. Box 7082, SE-220 07 Lund, Sweden

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.

Keywords: Customs Union; Economic Integration; European Union; Time Delays; Trade Facilitation; Trade Procedures

JEL-codes: C23; F15; O24

Language: English

17 pages, August 24, 2010

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Maria Persson and Yves Bourdet, 'Completing the EU Customs Union. The Effects of Trade Procedure Harmonization', JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies

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