What is the combined effect on welfare of tariff reductions on final goods, small tariffs on inputs, and duty drawbacks on exports? What is the effect of a duty drawback in the presence of input tariffs?

Evidence from Mercosur suggests that eliminating duty drawbacks for intra-regional exports would lead to increased counterlobbying against protection of intermediate products. Without the duty drawback, the common external tariff would have been an estimated 3.5 percentage points (25 percent) higher on average.

In recent years uniform tariffs have become increasingly popular but economists have not formulated a rationale that demonstrates their superiority to alternative tariff structures. Do strong political economy arguments exist that favor uniform tariffs?

Trade flows and trade policies need to be properly quantified to describe, compare, or follow the evolution of policies between sectors or countries or over time. This is essential to ensure that policy choices are made with an appropriate knowledge of the real conditions. This practical guide introduces the main techniques of trade and trade policy data analysis. It shows how to develop the main indexes used to analyze trade flows, tariff structures, and non-tariff measures. It presents the databases needed to construct these indexes as well as the challenges faced in collecting and processing these data, such as measurement errors or aggregation bias. Written by experts with practical experience in the field, A Practical Guide to Trade Policy Analysis has been developed to contribute to enhance developing countries' capacity to analyze and implement trade policy. It offers a hands-on introduction on how to estimate the distributional effects of trade policies on welfare, in particular on inequality and poverty. The guide is aimed at government experts engaged in trade negotiations, as well as students and researchers involved in trade-related study or research. An accompanying DVD contains data sets and program command files required for the exercises. Copublished by the WTO and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

"Many countries use duty drawbacks on exports, yet they have been given little attention in the literature and there is no consensus whether countries should embrace or abandon them. Ianchovichina asserts that the answer depends on a country's development priorities and economic conditions. An increase in the drawback has a positive impact on export competitiveness and employment, but could lead to exports with low domestic value added. The welfare effects of duty drawback reform are ambiguous. An increase in the drawback is more likely to be welfare improving if the economy is small with high input tariffs, low initial drawback, low administrative costs, and leakages in the tariff collection system. In China duty drawback removal after meeting WTO commitments will deepen domestic supply chains and improve welfare, but will hurt China's economic efficiency, export competitiveness, and real factor incomes. Further liberalization could mitigate these negative effects. This paper--a product of the Economic Policy Division, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network--is part of a larger effort in the network to study growth and competitiveness"--World Bank web site.