ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a first step in advancing understanding of technical barriers as a distinct class of trade-restricting measures. It proposes an explicit definition of technical barriers followed by discussion of measures that would consequently be included or excluded from this sub-set of non-tariff barriers. The chapter features a presentation and discussion of the results from a 1996 US Department of Agriculture (USDA) survey of technical barriers to US agricultural exports, one of the few institutional efforts to systematically collect information on the incidence and impact of these barriers. It explains technical barriers are defined as legally binding regulations and standards governing the sale of products in national markets, where the prima facie objective is the correction of market inefficiencies stemming from externalities associated with the production, distribution and consumption of the relevant products. The 1996 USDA survey provides the first step in an organized accounting of technical restrictions that constrain world agricultural trade.
