Bangladesh's Trade Barriers in a Global Perspective: A Comparative Analysis
Selim Raihan
Abstract
This paper develops an index of trade barrier for 108 countries and makes a comparative analysis of Bangladesh’s trade barrier indices in a global context. Bi-variate as well as multivariate cross-country econometric models have been estimated to explain cross-country variations in trade barrier indices. The results show that cross-country variations in trade barrier indices are much influenced by variations in per capita income, population, the ratio of foreign direct investment to GDP and literacy rate. The findings for a much disaggregated level of commodity categories show that Bangladesh possesses high trade barrier indices.