An Assessment of Voluntary Restraints on Hong Kong Exports to Europe and the USA

Abstract

Estimates of import tariff equivalents (MTEs), 1981-84, of European and US voluntary export restraints on Hong Kong are presented with estimates of rent incomes transferred. MTE rates varied sharply over time and inversely with European tariffs, as predicted by the model making national restrictions pointless as protection for small European countries. The model points to, and uses, a new way of estimating non-tariff barriers (NTBs) through derived estimates; in principle, once one has measured the restrictiveness of country l's NTBs, one can derive an estimate of the restrictiveness of country 2's NTBs.