International Standards and Trade

Abstract

While there is a large literature on the economic theory of international standards, and their presumed effects, we know much less about how international standards work in practice. This paper reviews the body of empirical work that has investigated the specific question: How international standards impact on international trade? Do they help or hinder trade? The work reviewed ranges from econometric studies using a variety of measures of standards derived from e.g. the Perinorm database, diffusion of ISO9000, regional agreements, mutual recognition agreements and harmonisation, to surveys of exporting firms. A mapping of the findings from econometric models shows that there is often, but not always, a positive relationship between international standards and exports or imports, which is in line with the widely held view that international standards are supportive of trade. For national (i.e. country-specific) standards studies find positive as well as negative effects on trade and thus provide only qualified support for the commonly held view that national standards create barriers to trade. Overall, the literature reviewed does not provide a single answer to the question of trade effects, and the explanation for this appears to have to do with how the multiple economic effects of standards interact. The paper summarises some of the existing empirical evidence for some of these effects, which include network externalities, variety, knowledge, quality and trust, and which merit further research in order to understand when standards help trade, and when not.

Retailer Supply Chain and Market Access: Evidence From French Agri‐food Firms Certified with Private Standards

“…Most of studies deal with public standards (i.e. mandatory standards) and their impact on bilateral trade (see Swann, 2010, for a review of the empirical literature). Still, there is no consensus among authors on the way standards affect trade.…”

Paving the path: drivers of standardization participation at ISO

“…The trade effect of standardization and of the amount of standards active within a country or economy has already been investigated by several scholars and is mostly found to be positive for international standardization (e.g. Blind & Jungmittag, 2005;Blind et al, 2017;Mangelsdorf, 2011;Swann, 2010). While the importance of standardization for international trade is generally confirmed by this literature, international standards are considered to be exogenous in these studies in contrast to the line of argument by Büthe and Mattlie (2011) elaborated above.…”

“…Blind (2002) investigates drivers of standards output and finds the export ratio to be an important factor while imports seem not to have an effect. Swann (2010) reviews the empirical literature on the effect of standards on trade. He observes that international standards are mostly found to foster trade while the results for national standards are rather inconclusive, e.g.…”

“…Standardization is an important factor for innovation (e.g. on the impacts on design and manufacturing processes see already Allen & Sriram, 2000) and its dissemination, both within a country and internationally (Swann, 2010). We focus our research in this study on the role of voluntary standards as key component of the 'tripartite standards regime' consisting of standards-setting, accreditation and certification defined by Loconto and Busch (2010).…”

Standards and technical regulations (Dimension 7) in the Western Balkans and Turkey

“…The political stalemate in the Committee for Technical Regulations of Bosnia and Herzegovina as the body involved in preparing programmes of transposition, persists due to disagreement over state and entity competences for issuing technical regulations and appointing conformity assessment bodies. 2 The progress made in ensuring overall quality infrastructure co-ordination in the WBT economies has not been complemented by support systems for exporters (for more information, please refer to Chapter 12 on internationalisation of SMEs). Most economies lack designated web portals or single points of contact.…”