Page 8 - ASEAN-EU Dialogue 2018: Regional and Inter-Regional Economic Cooperation: Identifying Priorities for ASEAN and the EU

Chapter Two
Importance of Streamlining Non-Tariff Measures in ASEAN
Evelyn S. Devadason

Tariffs are considered as no longer significant in ASEAN. Though the level of average tariffs
does differ across the ASEAN Member States (AMS), tariffs have been on a consistent decline
in all countries. It declined from 8.9 percent in 2000 to 4.5 percent in 2015 (Myanmar Times,
19 May 2017), where approximately 96 percent of the tariff lines are already at zero percent
(Salman and Proehoeman, 2018). One could therefore wrongly conclude from the progress
made through the reductions in tariffs that policy makers in ASEAN have resisted to regulate
trade. This however is not the case. The increasing incidence of non-tariff measures (NTMs)
in ASEAN has already been considered counterproductive to the decline in tariffs. ASEAN
recorded a total of 5,813 public NTMs. The types of NTMs in ASEAN are presented in Figure
2.1. The older AMS have more NTMs in force relative to the newer AMS. Thailand recorded
the highest number of NTMs, followed by the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and
Singapore. Most NTMs relate to imports for the individual ASEAN countries, though export
measures are widely used by the Philippines and Thailand. From the import side, 90.3 percent
1
of the total NTMs in ASEAN constitute technical measures. Technical barriers to trade (TBTs),
followed by sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS) dominate the portfolios of most AMS,
affecting 83.9 percent of product lines.

1800
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0

SPS TBT INSP CTPM QC PC Others EXP

Notes: SPS – sanitary and phytosanitary; TBT – technical barriers to trade; INSP – pre-shipment inspection and
other formalities; CTPM – contingent trade protection measures; QC – quantity control; PC – price control; others
- other import-related measures; and EXP – export-related measures.
Source: Derived from the ERIA-UNCTAD (2016) database.

Figure 2.1: ASEAN - Number of NTMs, by types

1 Technical measures refer to SPS, TBT and pre-shipment inspection and other formalities. SPS and TBTs are
also referred to as standard-like NTMs.
2