TL:DR: NTMs significantly affect poultry trade, with SPS and TBT measures having varying impacts on international and domestic markets.
A recent study by the USDA’s Economic Research Service examined how non-tariff measures (NTMs) affect the poultry industry.
The study, published this month, reviewed notifications to the World Trade Organization (WTO) regarding non-discriminatory poultry NTMs. These notifications increased from 18 in 1997 to 849 in 2018, with sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures leading the rise.
The Europe-Eurasia region mainly introduced new poultry NTMs, especially SPS measures.
NTMs, which include standards and rules beyond tariffs, greatly influence trade flows but have been under-researched. This is mainly due to data limitations and the broad application of many NTMs, the study said.
The study found that SPS and technical barriers to trade (TBT) notifications had small positive effects on international poultry trade compared to domestic trade, with variations across regions. SPS initiation notifications reduced the trade gap in the Europe-Eurasia region but had mixed effects elsewhere. TBT notifications showed no significant regional differences.
Using a gravity model, which helps predict the flow of goods between countries based on factors like economic size and distance, the research considered various factors influencing poultry trade and assessed the effects of NTMs on international and domestic trade values.
However, it did not evaluate the impacts of specific NTMs on individual countries or bilateral NTMs between trading partners.
