Hidden obstacles to trade: The case of the EU’s Ban on beef hormones

Non-tariff measures (NTMs) have become a prominent issue in trade negotiations, especially in agriculture. For trade negotiations between the EU and U.S., beef has emerged as an important topic. To export to the EU, U.S. producers face a complex series of compliance costs that occur on multiple points along the supply chain. However, the current approach to measuring NTMs does so in an abstract manner; this paper applies a more detailed, supply chain (SC) approach to measure those costs. Our analysis finds that the SC approach comprehensively accounts for the different components of NTM costs and leads to more meaningful implications for interpreting the welfare impacts of removing NTMs.