Differences of import requirements in agri-food trade – an explorative analysis of new data

This paper presents an analysis of requirements in international agri-food trade by applying new data collected in the EU project “NTM impact”. For the analysis, an index of regulatory heterogeneity in trade is developed so as to combine binary, ordered and quantitative information contents of different types of requirements. The results of the index analysis shed light on which requirements differ between pairs of trade partner countries and show which products are regulated more than others. In a second step, the results will be set into the context of trade indicators such as trade flows for example. The analysis of differences of requirements between countries can provide useful insights for policy-makers when deciding on convergence, harmonisation or equivalence of requirements or when solving market access issues due to regulatory heterogeneity.