Economic consequences of trade barriers: An analysis of the Norwegian salmon industry

Norwegian salmon exporters face several trade barriers, despite the fact that trade facilitation and global free trade are issues of high importance at the international agenda. The purpose of this paper is to investigate trade barriers for Norwegian salmon exporters, to form a basis for further work on the economic consequences of trade barriers. We show that trade barriers, often defined as tariffs and transportation costs, are much more varied and complex than given in traditional economic analysis. We concentrate the discussion on non-tariff and informal trade barriers. WTO is doing a continuous work in reducing and regulating non-tariff barriers to facilitate international trade, but the WTO process is slow, and the regulations are not binding. Informal barriers, as entrance costs, networks and risks are important success factors for export. The exporters must therefore spend time and money on establishing the networks, finding market information, and facing risks and corruption. The challenge now is to estimate the costs of these trade barriers to see how they influence exporters and markets. A survey among Norwegian salmon exporters in combination with further studies will help us fulfil this gap.