Prague Economic Papers 1999, 8(2) | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.43

The effects of tariff structure changes on comparative advantage after the accession of the czech republic to the european union

Marie Vavrejnová

Preparations for the accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union involve also the analysis of changes in the level and structure of customs duty tariffs.
In this study, the possible tariff structure changes were calculated using the comparison of the present Czech tariffs and the German tariffs, which include only common external EU tariffs. The concept of Balassa's and Corden's effective protection rate was used to express more precisely the burden on production by customs duty tariffs, in comparison with nominal tariffs. The effect of tariff structure changes on the structure of comparative advantage and resource allocation was estimated. Here the concept of revealed comparative advantage was used. A list of sectors with reinforced comparative advantage was chosen.
The results of the calculations should be taken as experimental, and for the present may give only general signals of effects, due to the obsolete statistical databasis used, and also due to limitations in the sectoral break up, given by the disposable input-output table which was used in calculations. Future changes in economic situation and the updated statistical databasis will call for updating of our calculations.

Keywords: effective rate of protection, comparative advantage, competitiveness, resource allocation

Published: January 1, 1999  Show citation