The Dissemination of the European Union’s Non-Tariff Measures for Imported Agri-Food Products and Implications for Vietnam

The European Union (EU) is recognized as one of the most stringent markets globally, imposing strict non-tariff measures (NTMs), particularly technical barriers to trade (TBT) and Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) regulations, on all imported commodities. The agri-food industry, in particular, is highly affected by NTMs. As the EU has signed numerous Free Trade Agreements, it has heightened the implementation of NTMs in response to reduced tariffs. To evaluate the extent of the dissemination of the EU NTMs on imported agri-food products, this study employed indicators such as coverage ratio (CR), frequency index (FI), and prevalence score (PS). Additionally, data on the number of NTMs applied and the number of the EU new notifications to WTO were collected. The research findings revealed that the FI and CR for the EU’s NTMs were generally 98%, illustrating that around 98% of agri-food commodities and 98% of the imported value of agri-food products are impacted by at least one NTM. The two most prevalent NTMs were SPS and TBT, with CR and FI, ranging from 94% to nearly 100% across all three groups of agri-food products (animal, vegetable, and food). Based on the PS, each imported agri-food product into the EU is affected by 15 NTMs on average. Due to the significant prevalence of NTMs, various suggestions and implications have been provided to Vietnam to enhance the export performance of Vietnamese agri-food products in the EU market.