He also pushed for non-tariff barriers be lifted and that a tough enforcement mechanism be implemented.
But switching from non-tariff barriers to tariffs can go only so far to promote agricultural trade.
Executives complain, though, that red tape and other non-tariff barriers are a far bigger hurdle.
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Some businesses in the service sector will also be freed from irksome non-tariff barriers.
First, with a few temporary exceptions, it converted all non-tariff barriers and unbound tariffs into bound tariffs.
Otherwise China may end up like Japan, which boasts some of the world's lowest tariffs but highest non-tariff barriers.
But many of the most competitive products face special duties or non-tariff barriers.
Nevertheless, for the past three years, it has made almost no progress in removing myriad non-tariff barriers to intra-group trade.
Meanwhile, Brazilian manufacturers trying to export to China face steep non-tariff barriers on manufactured goods, such as obstructive state purchasing agents.
Detroit ultimately, albeit reluctantly, acquiesced to a U.S.-South Korea trade pact touching on similar issues of non-tariff barriers to trade that Japan raises.
Eric Harwit, a professor at the University of Hawaii, says they are contemplating South Korean- or Japanese-style protectionism: red tape and other non-tariff barriers.
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It has begun, for the first time, to calculate the real cost to poor countries of tariffs, anti-dumping duties and non-tariff barriers in rich markets.
In addition, World Bank research showed that some 62% of Chinese exports to America and 48% of exports to the European Union faced non-tariff barriers in 1993.
And people are concerned about whether the standards, the non-tariff barriers with respect to autos is something that is preventing us from being able to compete with very good products.
William Thomas, a senior American congressman, told delegates that rich-world subsidies and other non-tariff barriers, such as sanitation inspections, still block imports of African foodstuffs: crateloads rot in American ports.
They include getting rid of non-tariff barriers (eg, by harmonising food-safety rules) and allowing free trade in services and government purchases, as well as eliminating the many exceptions to the common tariff.
What's more, efforts to draw up shared procedures and standards for imports lag far behind tariff cuts even though such non-tariff barriers constitute the biggest drag on trade in the region, according to a recent World Bank study.
So if we have established agreements in which both sides are supposed to open up their markets, we do so and then the other side is imposing a whole set of non-tariff barriers in place, that's a problem.
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The Bank's own research shows how the Quad's recent efforts to cut some of the steepest tariffs that the poorest countries face tariffs that are close to 100% on manufacturing and farm products will not necessarily solve the problem, since non-tariff barriers can be just as harmful.
So part of what we've been trying to do is to make sure that we're getting the enforcement side of this tight, make sure that if we've got a trade agreement with China or other countries, that they are abiding with it -- they're not stealing our intellectual property or making sure that their non-tariff barriers are lowered even as ours are opened up.
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What happened was, is a group, a subset of APEC countries came together and said let's see if we can create a high-standard agreement that is dealing with tariffs and non-tariff barriers to trade, but let's also incorporate a whole range of new trade issues that are going to be coming up in the future -- innovation, regulatory convergence, how we're thinking about the Internet and intellectual property.
The results from models of this type depend partly on the assumptions economists have to make for instance about the effect of removing non-tariff trade barriers.
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