Effects of non-tariff barriers on Brazilian fisheries exports to the European Union

Non-tariff barriers (NTBs) affect particularly developing countries because of their market dependence on developed countries and their minor influence over the international trade forums. NTBs have an increasing importance in world trade of fishery products due to the rise of the international transactions of these products. World exports of fishery products doubled between 1998 and 2008, from US$ 51.5 billion to US$ 101.9 billion. This article aims to analyze the impact of NTBs implemented by EU on the Brazilian exports of fishery products. The methodology used was based on the inventory approach integrated to the ARIMA model. The data used refer to technical barriers obtained from the TRAINS/UNCTAD database and to the Brazilian exports collected on the ALICEWEB database. Results showed that these measures presented negative impact only for fresh fish. We can suppose that NTBs imposed by Europe still do not have relevant effects on Brazilian exports. Even for fresh fish, it is not possible to state accurately that the reduction in volume was caused by the introduction of the NTB because other factors can be involved. However, the rapid increase in the number of NTBs to seafood imports in the European market represents a potential risk to the growth of Brazilian exports. Moreover, given that much of the Brazilian aquaculture is being developed within complex ecosystems like the Amazon, there is a possibility of emerging new NTBs related to environmental constraints. These results emphasize the need to incorporate other variables in the NTB analysis in order to improve measurement of its effects. Key words: non-tariff barriers, fishery products, export, Brazil, European Union Las barreras no arancelarias (BNAs) afectan en particular a los paises en desarrollo debido a la mayor dependencia de estos en relacion con los mercados de los paises desarrollados, asi como tambien a su menor influencia en los foros del comercio internacional. Las BNAs tienen una importancia creciente en el comercio mundial de pescados debido al aumento de las transacciones internacionales de esos productos. Las exportaciones mundiales de pescados se duplicaron entre 1998 y 2008, pasando de 51,5 a 101,9 miles de millones de US$. Este articulo intenta analizar el impacto de las BNAs creadas por la Union Europea sobre las exportaciones brasilenas de pescados. Se basa en el metodo de inventarios integrado al modelo ARIMA. Los datos se refieren a barreras tecnicas obtenidas en la base de