Policy and non-policy barriers to trade and implicit taxation of exports in Uganda

Uganda has made significant progress in reducing policy-induced anti-export bias in its trade policy in the 1990s. Taxes on exports have been abolishe d and import protection has been reduced considerably Such trade policy bar riers are only a component of the transactions costs associated with tmde. Poor infrastructure, notably by increasing transport costs, and institution al inefficiencies can significantly increase trade costs. The effective pro tection of imports, and implicit tax on exports, due to transport costs is calculated find compared to effective protection due to trade policy barrie rs for Uganda. The results reveal that transport costs ave often very high, in nanny cases representing a greater cost (tax) to exporters than trade p olicy.