Identification and Elimination of Barriers in the Operations and Management of Maritime Transportation

Transportation-related costs both at ports and for inland transportation are very high, which is essentially caused by the high cost of labor and construction of infrastructure. This condition, however, is also caused by protectionist policies in the domestic transportation field. This chapter discusses and identifies barriers in the operation and management of maritime and multimodal transportation. The effect of the removal of barriers is calculated by applying a Spatial Computable General Equilibrium (SCGE) model that includes behavior of the transportation sector. The results of case studies show that a 10% reduction of import or export costs produces a 1% increase in total trade.