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After summarising the fundamental elements of the free trade treaty, it is useful to review the benefits and costs involved for both the EU and the US. Naturally its impact will vary according to the extent of the agreements included in each of these three areas. Benefits in terms of tariffs will be limited taking into account the fact that these are already low between both regions (less than 2% of the price on average) and that more than half their trade is not subject to tariffs. The economic impact of a tariff reduction will therefore only be significant for products whose rates are higher, such as processed food and motor vehicles (with tariffs of 14.6% and 8.0% in the EU, respectively). On the other hand, repercussions due to the reduction in NTBs will be considerable as these currently entail considerable extra costs. The ad valorem equivalent of NTBs is estimated at an 8.5% increase on average for services and 21.5% for goods, although this figure varies between sectors (see the first graph), with an increase of over 50% in the food and beverage sector.1 As has already been mentioned, NTBs cover many aspects and differ in nature so that, unlike tariffs, their complete elimination is not easy or even realistic from a technical or political point of view. The final impact of the treaty will therefore depend on how far these barriers are reduced.
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