A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

T

Tariff
A duty (or tax) levied upon goods transported from one customs area to another either for protective or revenue purposes.

Tariff Quota
Application of a reduced or zero duty rate for a specified quantity of imported goods, or for goods imported during a given period.

Tariff-Rate Quota
A quota that is determined on the basis of the applicable tariff rate applied to imports. A predetermined amount of a good is allowed to enter at a reduced or zero tariff rate. After the quota has been filled, all subsequent shipments of that good during a specific period of time, such as a calendar year, are assessed a higher import tariff, usually the normal most-favoured-nation tariff.

TBT (Technical Barriers to Trade)
Are the standards and regulations imposed by governments and governmental authorities to restrict trade.

Technical Regulations
Regulations that lay down characteristics for products or related processes and production methods, including applicable administrative provisions, with which compliance is mandatory. It may also include or deal exclusively with terminology, symbols, packaging, marking, or labelling requirements as they apply to a product, process, or production method.

Technology Transfer
The movement of modern or scientific methods of production or distribution from one enterprise, institution, or country to another, as through foreign investment, international trade, licensing of patent rights, technical assistance, or training. Technology may also be transferred by giving it away (technical journals, conferences, emigration of technical experts, technical assistance programs) or by industrial espionage.

Telegraphic Transfer
Money is transferred by coded interbank telex and as long as the exporter makes it clear to the overseas buyer exactly to which bank and account the remittance should be made, the exporter should receive very speedy payment. 

Tenor
The period of credit given by a Bill of Exchange.

Term Draft
A Bill of Exchange payable “at a fixed or determinable future time”

Terms Of Trade
The ratio of prices (unit values) of a country's exports to the prices (unit values) of its imports. Some economists have discerned a deteriorating trend in this ratio for developing countries as a whole. Other economists maintain that whereas the terms of trade may have become less favourable for certain countries during certain periods — and even for all developing countries during some periods — the same terms of trade have improved for other developing countries in the same periods and perhaps for most developing countries during other periods.

Third-Country Dumping
A situation in which the exports of a product from one country are being injured or threatened with injury as a result of exports of the same product from a second country into a third country at less than fair value.

Threshold Price
A minimum price. In the case of the European Community, the price for grains and other agricultural products under which EC’s Common Agricultural Policy operates. The threshold price is fixed at a level that will bring the selling price of grains up to the existing price level in the marketing region within the European Community where supplies are lowest.

Tied Loan
A loan made by a government agency that requires a foreign borrower to spend the proceeds in the lender's country or to buy the lender's products.

TIR
Initials for the French term “Transports International Routiers”, the name given to international road service facilities where one truck crosses many frontiers carrying goods.  For example, a TIR truck could load in England and the driver could stay with it perhaps as far as the Middle East, Turkey, etc. Special Carnets are available, as distinct from ATA Carnets.

Trade Agreement
A bilateral or multilateral treaty or other enforceable compact committing two or more nations to specified terms of commerce, usually involving mutually beneficial concessions.

Trade Barriers
Government laws, regulations, policies, or practices that either protect domestic products from foreign competition or artificially stimulate exports of particular domestic products.

Trade Diversion
A shift in the pattern of origin of a country's imports, resulting from changes in trade policies or practices, which may or may not involve change in the overall volume or composition of the imports involved.

Trade Mission 
Experts and/or businessmen sent by a government or by commercial interests in one country to encourage exports to the market of another country.

Trademark
A mark or symbol secured by legal registration used by a manufacturer or trader to distinguish his or her goods from competing goods.

Transit Zone
The area surrounding a port of entry in a coastal country that serves as a storage and distribution centre for the convenience of a neighbouring country — a land-locked country, for example — lacking adequate port facilities or access to the sea. A transit zone is administered so that goods in transit to and from the neighbouring country are not subject to the customs duties, import controls, or many of the entry and exit formalities of the host country. A transit zone is a more limited facility than either a free trade zone or free port.

Transparency
Visibility and clarity of laws, regulations, and procedures. Some of the codes of conduct negotiated during the Tokyo Round sought to increase the transparency of non-tariff barriers that impede trade.

Transshipment
A shipment that has been moved through, imported, transferred, or unladen in one or more intermediary countries (other than their originating country) prior to importation into the final destination country.

Tropical Products
Traditionally, agricultural goods of export interest to developing countries in the tropical zones of Africa, Latin America, and East Asia, such as coffee, tea, spices, natural rubber, palm oil, bananas, and tropical hardwoods.