Trade costs and the role of international trade intermediaries

As tariffs have become less important in shaping trade patterns, researchers have begun to study the impact that other trade costs have on trading behavior. In this chapter, the authors detail research on the role that export and import intermediaries play in reducing the costs both of acquiring and consolidating the products of domestic producers for export to foreign markets and of matching the imported products of foreign producers with domestic customers. They present the current state of knowledge on these intermediaries and suggest avenues of future research on the market imperfections that generate intermediaries and their policy implications.