The various tariff and non-tariff barriers that exists in the international trading environment

A tariff is defined as a charge or a sum of charges for services or goods arriving in a country. An example of a tariff may be an extra tax cost. Tariffs do not necessarily mean money and there are still tariffs that exist today. (dictionary Cambridge, 2019) The U.S. president declared that he wanted to enforce a 25% tariff on steel imports, and 10% on aluminium, his reasoning behind this was to introduce more manufacturing jobs in the United States but due to these tariffs increasing cost for the users, then it will affect the consumers too.

Singapore is commonly recognised as an open economy, with over 99% of imports are duty-free. Although Singapore must charge high taxes on items such as wine, tobacco and motor vehicles, this is due to social and environmental motives. According to the FTA, any exports from United States to Singapore are duty-free. Singapore charge a 7% Goods and Services Tax (GST), but this is due to increase to 9% in the period of 2021-2025. (export.gov, 2019)

The entry of variety of customer productions into Singapore, should be approved through different government legal boards. Animal and plant products must have documents from the Singapore Agri-food and Veterinary Authority to be permitted, imports of rice must have a licence, and importing products such as medicines or makeup are controlled by the Health Sciences Authority. Products imported in to Singapore are controlled under the Customs Act, GST Act, the Regulation of imports & exports Act. It is important to have a Customs permit for import and tax expenses.  (austrade, 2019)

 Non-tariffs are boundaries that are outcomes from prohibitions, circumstances or precise market requirements that make imports and exports of goods tough and expensive. There is several non-tariff barriers and these can come from quotas, employment law, import licences, product classification, restrictive licences, or voluntary export restraints. (tradebarrierswa, 2019)

 A quota is a limit that the government executes on importation, it is a form of protection. (marketbusinessnews, 2019) The Bush administration, enforced quotas on a few types of fabric products, this was to give theS United States textile industry an advantage against China due to the Chinese imports. This impacted Chinese imports of knit fabrics, robes, bras. The United States put quotas on items such as milk, tuna, peanuts and many more. (nbcnews, 2019)

 A Voluntary Export Restraints are actions between importing and exporting countries, where the country that is exporting approves of restricting the amount of precise exports under a particular level to escape the burden of mandatory limits from the importing country. This agreement may be put in place by either the government or the industry. (stats.oecd, 2019)

 Back in 1981, Americas car manufacturing delayed in the recession, so therefore the Japanese car industry made an agreement to reduce exports of passenger cars to the U.S, this VER was maintained by the Reagan administration and it permitted 1.68 million Japanese cars into America yearly and by 1985 it had increased to 2.30 million but this program was ended in 1994. (perc, 2019)
 
Foreign Exchange Restrictions is when the importer must ensure that suitable foreign exchange is accessible for importing goods by gaining permission from the exchange control establishments of Singapore before finalising contracts with suppliers. Another non-tariff barrier is state trading, this is when importing and exporting dealings are controlled by State agencies that pass global trading agreeing with government policies. (economicdiscussion, 2019)