Bringing Down the Barriers: IDB Research on Trade Costs in LAC

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Date
Jun 2015
INT's research program over the past several years has sought to fill this gap. Beginning in 2008, the Sector has published a series of analytically rigorous and policy relevant studies of the impact of transportation costs, information constraints, and trade facilitation on LAC's trade performance. Two additional reports considered the effect of regulatory overlap an unintended consequence of the proliferation of trade agreements since the early 1990s' and the region's participation in global value chains, the defining trend in 21st century trade. At the same time, the Sector has continued to monitor and analyze traditional trade costs such as tariffs, which remain considerable barriers to trade for certain countries and lectors despite the region's broad movement towards liberalization over the past two decades.