What are nontariff barriers (NTBs)? Discuss any three forms of NTBs other than quotas and voluntary export restraints (VERs).

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

POSSIBLE RESPONSE: Nontariff barriers (NTBs) to imports are government policies, other than taxes on imports, that reduce imports below their free-trade levels. In addition to quotas and voluntary export restraints (VERs), there are many other kinds of NTBs. Here are three.
A government can write product standards in ways that protect local producers. Such standards can be noble efforts to enhance society's well-being, by addressing market failures that lead to unsafe conditions and environmental degradation. But such standards can also be specified so that they can be met more easily by local products than by imported products. For instance, the standards can be tailored to fit local products, but to require costly modifications to foreign products. Or, the standards can be higher for imported products or enforced more strictly. Or, the testing and certification procedures can be more costly, slower, or more uncertain for foreign products. 
A domestic content requirement mandates that a product produced and sold in a country must have a specified minimum amount of domestic production value, in the form of wages paid to local workers or materials and components produced within the country. Domestic content requirements can create import protection at two levels. They can be a barrier to imports of the products that do not meet the content rules. And they can limit the import of materials and components that otherwise would have been used in domestic production of the products. 
Government procurement practices can be another form of nontariff barrier to imports if the purchasing processes are biased against foreign products, as they often are. In many countries the governments buy relatively few imported products and instead buy mostly locally produced products.