Decreasing tariffs and increasing trade agreements around the world have led to fairer and more open trade. Or has it? New studies show that there are more discriminatory regulations than liberalizing trade actions implemented in the last decades. Have tariffs been substituted for non-tariff barriers and if so, has it the same negative effect on trade? In this thesis, these questions are studied by looking at monthly Swedish steel and iron exports between 2002 and 2022. The questions are studied by constructing three different regression models using the Ordinary least squares method. Three dependent variables are used firstly steel and iron trade to the US to find direct effects of trade barriers, secondly steel and iron trade within the EU to find if EU trade barriers have indirect effects on Swedish steel and iron exports and lastly trade partners outside of EU and US to study if trade barriers cause Swedish steel and iron exports to shift towards other trade partners.
The main findings are that Swedish steel and iron exports are not negatively affected neither directly or indirectly by non-tariff barriers, nor have any shift in exports to trade partners outside of the EU and the US been detected. The study also shows that traditional tariffs still have a decreasing effect on Swedish steel and iron exports.