Non-tariff Measures in ASEAN: A Simple Proposal

IntroductionAfter close to 70 years of trade liberalization, a series of recent events suggests that the tide may well be turning. International trade as a proportion of global gross domestic product (GDP) has stopped growing in the last decade, in what Constantinescu et al. (2015) dub the ‘Great Trade Slowdown’. Momentum for trade liberalization at the multilateral level has stumbled on the Doha round’s failure, with limited hopes for revival. Even regional trade agreements, sometimes seen as alternatives to multilateral liberalization, are under heavy attack by politicians of all strides in the United States, traditionally the bulwark of free trade. Last but not least, while the 2008–2009 global financial crisis did not lead to the explosion of protectionism feared by many, the use of temporary trade measures by emerging countries has been markedly rising (Didier et al., 2016). .../...