Transparency of Export Restrictions: A Checklist Promoting Good Practice

The incidence of export taxes, prohibitions and other measures that raise export prices, limit export quantities or place conditions on exporting is on the rise. Transparency can help mitigate the negative effects of export restrictions by enabling affected stakeholders to better understand and anticipate policy change and adjust their activities. This paper develops a checklist of good practice in transparency which can serve as a tool for self-evaluation by governments and for promoting better and more consistent transparency practices in this area. The items of the checklist are drawn from norms and practices found in WTO and regional trade agreements and good governance guidelines. Additionally, feedback was sought through a small business survey. The list provides guidance with respect to such questions as what, when and how information about export restrictions governments ought to make public. It assembles relevant principles for keeping stakeholders and the general public informed at different stages of developing and implementing export restrictions and identifies information content for an effective information policy. Transparency moreover depends on the ease with which information can be obtained and on the extent to which stakeholders have an opportunity to make their views known when a measure is still on the drawing board.