extension of the ITA, which includes coverage of more electronic products, to non-tariff measures —including standards— began shortly after the ITA was signed in 1996<sup>2</sup> .

Facilitating trade by harmonizing product standards to international ones is one possible way, among others in building on the ITA to address non-tariff measures. Moreover, the WTO Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement encourages harmonization of standards and includes the Code of Good Practice to promote this objective. Concrete options to achieve wider use of international standards in support of the Agreement have specifically been discussed in the electronics sector<sup>3</sup> , and a number of initiatives are underway in regional organizations to harmonize standards.<sup>4</sup> Does harmonization of regional standards to international ones affect trade? Is the impact of international standard harmonization in electronics different respect to other sectors, say textiles and apparel? Using a new World Bank database of European standards for electronic products, this study examines the net impact of internationally-harmonized European standards on EU imports. To our knowledge, this is the first study to directly evaluate the impact of international harmonization of standards on trade flows for the electronics sector. In the closest article related to this research, Moenius (2006b) studies the role of international harmonization of standards on trade flows of product that depend on electricity. He defines international harmonization as bilaterally shared standards among an importing-exporting country pair. We take advantage of the features of our dataset to widen this definition as we consider internationally harmonized standards as those standards that are aligned with worldwide practices defined by global institutions. We consider this a more accurate framework to analyze the role of international synchronization in standards on trade flows.

This paper leverages a new data set of European and international standards collected by the World Bank. The data set includes European standards for electrical, electronic and related products over the period 1990-2006. We quantify the differentiated effect on trade of European standards that are internationally harmonized against those that are not. Our main finding is that internationally-harmonized EU standards expand EU imports of electronic products. Conversely, European standards that are not aligned with international norms have a lower effect on EU imports, or even a negative one. This is the first paper to find robust evidence on the positive trade effects of international harmonization in electronic products. The results contrast with Czubala et al. (2008), who

> 2 On 2000, the Committee of Participants on the Expansion of Trade in Information Technology Products (ITA Committee) agreed on its “Non-Tariff Measures Work Programme” (contained in WTO document G/IT/19). This document aimed to identify NTM which were impediments for trade and to examine the economic and developmental impact of such measures on trade in ITA products.

> 3 As a matter of fact, in September 2008 the EU submitted a proposal (G/IT/W/28) to review and initiate negotiations to update the ITA. On non-tariff barriers it proposed, “... agreement on substantive provisions concerning the recognition of internationally agreed standards and of methods of conformity assessment, in order to avoid multiple testing and enable greater economies of scale without compromising on product safety”.

> 4 There are a number of initiatives underway in regional trade and industry groups to harmonize standards in electronic and electrical products.  These include; the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), Pan American Standards Commission (COPANT), among others.

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