First, with a few temporary exceptions, it converted all non-tariff barriers and unbound tariffs into bound tariffs.
The CGD measures trade policy mainly by combining information on tariffs, non-tariff barriers and domestic subsidies.
Could both sides be right?In WTO negotiations, countries haggle not over tariffs, but over tariff ceilings.
Yet the report notes that "non-tariff barriers have replaced tariffs as protective measures for domestic industries".
"The guy's goofy enough that he may say, 'What tariffs?' 'I never said tariffs,' " Simmons said.
(Many WTO tariff-ceilings, known as "bindings", were higher than the existing tariffs, thus allowing the tariffs to be raised legally under the terms of earlier trade agreements.
But the Tire Industry Association, a trade group that seeks to end the tariffs, has questioned the tariff's effectiveness and called for it to be lifted.
They include plans to ban complex multi-tier tariffs, uncompetitive dead tariffs that are no longer available for new customers and to limit the number of core tariffs each supplier is allowed to offer.
Since 1996, the trend has been away from a common external tariff: average external tariffs among the five CACM members vary from 4% to 12%, and some countries still levy tariffs on their neighbours' exports.
Some technologies such as solar photovoltaic panels on household roofs will get a higher feed-in tariff, and, importantly, all tariffs will be uprated with inflation each year.
