New Insights into Preferential Tariff Utilization

This article offers a snapshot of a forthcoming academic paper and was published with the World Customs Organization. Using the case of the EU – Republic of Korea preferential trade agreement, the article illustrates that existing product-level explanations for non-utilization of preferential tariff regimes are insufficient to account for cross-country variations in utilization across EU member states. The findings suggest that there are differences in the enforcement of EU customs rules, and in the propensity of traders to apply for preferential treatment across EU member states. The article calls for broader collaboration across academia, private and public sector agents to improve the understanding of preference utilization. LINK