This paper analyses how regulatory convergence in different categories of technical barriers to trade (TBTs) imposed on imports of goods in information and communications technology (ICT) globally affected the values, volumes and unit values of imported goods during the period 1996–2019. Keywords cited in TBTs that are notified to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) give an indication of the regulatory objectives behind the imposition of TBTs. MAST also classifies TBTs based on their applicability, procedural and administrative uses, factors which will also be taken into consideration in the analysis. However, the objectives of TBTs may provide better insights to policymakers. TBTs are non-discriminatory measures that are imposed unilaterally on all trading partners and on domestic producers. It is not feasible to analyse unilateral TBTs in a gravity setting, as they are excluded by the introduction of country-product-time fixed effects that control for multilateral resistances. However, regulatory convergence in TBT categories is a bilateral time-varying variable that is analysed in a gravity model in this paper. The empirical results suggest that regulatory convergence between trading partners in some TBT categories stimulates import values and volumes. However, the impact is very heterogeneous across TBT objectives and classes and across ICT product categories.

中文翻译：

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技术性贸易壁垒内的监管趋同

本文分析了 1996 年至 2019 年期间全球对信息和通信技术 (ICT) 商品进口施加的不同类别技术贸易壁垒 (TBT) 的监管趋同如何影响进口商品的价值、数量和单位价值。向世界贸易组织 (WTO) 通报的 TBT 中引用的关键词表明了实施 TBT 背后的监管目标。MAST 还根据 TBT 的适用性、程序和管理用途对 TBT 进行分类，这些因素也将在分析中考虑在内。然而，技术性贸易壁垒的目标可能为政策制定者提供更好的见解。TBT 是单方面对所有贸易伙伴和国内生产商实施的非歧视性措施。在重力环境下分析单边技术性贸易壁垒是不可行的，因为它们被引入控制多边阻力的国家产品时间固定效应所排除。然而，TBT类别的监管趋同是双边时变变量，本文采用引力模型进行分析。实证结果表明，某些技术性贸易壁垒类别的贸易伙伴之间的监管趋同会刺激进口价值和数量。然而，不同 TBT 目标和类别以及不同 ICT 产品类别的影响非常不同。