The Structure of Import Tariffs in the Russian Federation : 2001-05

Shepotylo, Oleksandr ; Tarr, David

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS;    APPAREL;    AVERAGE TARIFF;    AVERAGE TARIFFS;    AVERAGE TRADE;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-4265
RP-ID  :  WPS4265

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The Russian tariff structure containsover 11,000 tariff lines of which about 1,700 use theso-called "combined" tariff rate system. For thecombined system tariff lines, the actual tariff applied byRussian customs is the maximum of the ad valorem or specifictariff. The lack of available data and the difficulty incalculating the ad valorem equivalence of the specifictariffs have resulted in some previous efforts that havesimply ignored the specific tariffs. This is the first paperto accurately assess the tariff rates. The authors show thatignoring the specific tariffs results in an underestimate ofthe actual tariff rates by about 1 to 3 percentage points,depending on the year. The average tariff in Russia hasincreased between 2001 and 2003 from about 11.5 to between13 and 14.5 percent, but it has held steady in 2004 and2005. This places Russia's tariffs at a level slightlyhigher than other middle-income countries and considerablyhigher than the OECD countries. The trade weighted standarddeviation of the tariff approximately doubled from 9.5percent in 2001 to 18 percent in 2003, but then fell to 15.2percent by 2005. The food sector and light industry are theaggregate sectors with the highest tariff rates-their tariffrates in 2005 were 23.1 percent and 19.5 percent on atrade-weighted basis, but the increase in their tariffs hasnot led to an increase in their output.