Legitimate reasons for the imposition of non-tariff measures (NTMs) within regulations have triggered their extensive use. Among these measures, technical barriers to trade (TBTs) and sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures allow countries to impose restrictions on the import of low-quality products suspected of harming domestic consumers’ health, plant life, or the environment. This paper analyses two regulative and standard-like NTMs – TBTs and SPS measures – and the quality of traded products that is driven by their imposition, which is a general underlying motive for the adoption of such regulations. A dummy variable measuring the existence of these NTMs and a count variable indicating their stringency are used in the analysis. Moreover, two other variables indicate flows of NTMs imposed in each year and stocks of these NTMs accumulated over years. The results indicate that TBTs and SPS measures do indeed imply a higher quality of traded products. Stringent TBTs with more regulations imposed in each year (i.e. flows of count TBTs) have the largest impact on the quality of traded products. However, for SPS measures, only the existence of a regulation (i.e. the dummy variable on flows of SPS measures) on a traded product has the strongest impact on its quality.

中文翻译：

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非关税措施与进口产品质量

在法规范围内实施非关税措施 (NTM) 的正当理由引发了它们的广泛使用。在这些措施中，技术性贸易壁垒 (TBT) 和卫生和植物检疫 (SPS) 措施允许各国限制进口涉嫌危害国内消费者健康、植物生命或环境的低质量产品。本文分析了两种监管和类似标准的非关税措施——TBT 和 SPS 措施——以及由其实施所驱动的交易产品的质量，这是采用此类规定的一般潜在动机。在分析中使用了衡量这些 NTM 存在的虚拟变量和指示其严格性的计数变量。此外，另外两个变量表明流动每年实施的 NTM 和股票多年来积累的这些 NTM。结果表明，TBTs 和 SPS 措施确实意味着交易产品的质量更高。每年实施更多法规的严格 TBT（即流动计数 TBT）对交易产品质量的影响最大。然而，对于 SPS 措施，只有一个规则的存在（即虚拟变量流动SPS 措施）对交易产品的质量影响最大。