Free trade agreements in a small, open country: The case of Norway

• Date: 01 December 2019
• Author: Hege Medin
• Published date: 01 December 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/twec.12876

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wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/twec World Econ. 2019;42:3438–3446.

© 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

DOI: 10.1111/twec.12876

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

Free trade agreements in a small, open country: The

case of Norway

HegeMedin

Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, Oslo, Norway

Funding information

Research Council of Norway, Grant/Award Number: 233836

KEYWORDS

European Free Trade Association, free trade agreements, non-tariff barriers, Norway, tariffs

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INTRODUCTION

The WTO (2018a) Trade Policy Review for Norway (henceforth: TPR) contains much information

of interest to anyone wishing to engage in trade with Norway or studying its trade policy. The TPR

is long, with more than 150 pages of details. Although many of them are relevant, one may well ask

whether they all belong in a trade policy review. For example, almost two pages are devoted to de-

scribing the Norwegian governance system, offering information like the fact that Norway has 428

municipalities which "have oversight of primary school education, senior citizen services, out‐patient

health services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads" (p. 24).

However, little space is devoted to discussing a subject that is highly relevant: Norway's free trade

agreements with countries other than members of the European Union (EU) or the European Free

Trade Association (EFTA)—in this paper referred to as FTAs. As a small country, highly dependent

upon trade, Norway has a long history of outward orientation and now has one of the world's largest

networks of FTAs. Even so, only about half a page is devoted to discussing these in the TPR's section

on Regional and Preferential Agreements (pp. 28–30). Also, the previous review, WTO (2012), dealt

only briefly with the subject.

Admittedly, further information is provided in various subsections throughout the TPR—most notably

concerning provisions on tariffs and quotas for agricultural imports in the Tariffs section (pp. 43–54). But

there is no overview of all the agreements with areas covered. A "table" in the appendix is said to list the

agreements (referred to as Table A2.2, p. 30), but there in fact is no such table (the agreements are listed

in the Tariffs section, however). In the entire Review, a mere three pages are devoted to Norway's FTAs.

In this paper, I discuss the extent, comprehensiveness and possible impact of Norway's FTAs.

Norway is an interesting case that may be particularly relevant for other small, open economies. Apart

from the published sources referred to in the text, the paper draws on oral and written information, pro-

vided by Lars Erik Nordgaard of the Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries (henceforth: