NTMs can increase the cost of doing business through increased compliance costs, thus reducing productivity. Poorly designed and inefficiently implemented NTMs can create administrative and financial burden for the private sector. This makes it necessary to review NTMs with the objective of minimizing compliance costs, improving design and making implementation processes more effective: all critical elements for boosting regional value chains (RVCs). At the same time, NTMs are necessary for achieving other social or development goals. Thus, there is a need to strike a careful balance when reviewing NTMs such that effectiveness of NTMs in meeting the policy objectives for which they are designed is not undermined.

The NTM Cost-Effectiveness Toolkit addresses this very issue: it provides tools to evaluate NTMs in terms of the objective they are designed for, the way they are being implemented, and how easy it is for the private sector to comply with them. In a pilot project, the toolkit was piloted in the Kenyan cotton, textiles and apparel (CTA) value chain, the project involved a review of NTMs applied to cotton lint imports in Kenya. It resulted in recommendations for simplifying import regulations and procedures and reduce trade costs while ensuring that relevant public policy objectives are not compromised.

The webinar on 27 January will present the NTM Cost-Effectiveness Toolkit and discuss its use and implementation with a group of expert panellists from the Government of Kenya, the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) and the Organization for Economic Co-Operation (OECD).

The webinar is open to policymakers, researchers, the private sector, and other interested stakeholders.