Completing the EU Customs Union. The Effects of Trade Procedure Harmonization

In English In this paper, we point out that the EU does not have a harmonized practice when it comes to trade procedures, implying that countries in the rest of the world face different trade barriers depending on which EU country they ship their goods to. Estimating the impact of trade procedures on exports from non-EU countries, we find a highly statistically significant and negative effect. Simulating what the effects would be of harmonizing trade procedures to the level of the most efficient EU countries, we find that aggregated exports to the EU would increase by 20 percent for the average exporter.