Is there a trade-off between NTMs and Tariff protection in Mediterranean countries?

Resulting from the reduction of tariffs, the significance of and the interest in the impact of Non-Tariff Measures on agricultural trade has increased. The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between NTMs and tariffs in Mediterranean (MED) countries. A product-by-product taxonomy combining the two measures was created, and later a statistical analysis between them was applied. We identified an overall relatively low level of protection. Our findings indicate that there are dynamic substitution statistical relationships between NTM and tariffs, although with big variations across goods and countries, which gives room to ongoing efforts of harmonization in the area of agricultural trade.