Impact of Trade Costs on Trade: Empirical Evidence from Asian Countries
Trade costs include all costs incurred in getting a good to a final user other than the marginal cost of producing the good itself, such as transportation costs (both freight costs and time costs), policy barriers (tariffs and non-tariff barriers), information costs, contract enforcement costs, costs associated with the use of different currencies, legal and regulatory costs, and local distribution costs (wholesale and retail). Higher trade costs is an obstacle to trade and it impedes the realization of gains from trade liberalisation...