The "Four Ts" in International Trade

There are four major cost components in international trade:

• Transaction costs. The costs related to the economic exchange behind trade. It can include the gathering of information, negotiating, and enforcing contracts, letters of credit and transactions, including monetary exchange if a transaction takes place in another currency. Transactions taking place within a corporation are commonly lower than for transactions taking place between corporations. Still, with e-commerce they have declined substantially.
• Tariff and non-tariff costs. Levies imposed by governments on a realized trade flow. They can involve a direct monetary cost imposed according to the product being traded (e.g. agricultural goods, finished goods, petroleum, etc.) or standards to be abided to for a product to be allowed entry into a foreign market. A variety of multilateral and bilateral arrangements have reduced tariffs and internationally recognized standards (e.g. ISO) have marginalized non-tariffs barriers.
• Transport costs. The full costs of shipping goods from the point of production to the point of consumption. Containerization, intermodal transportation and economies of scale have reduced transport costs significantly.
• Time costs. The delays related to the lag between an order and the moment it is received by the purchaser. Long distance international trade is often related with time delays that can be compounded with custom inspection delays. Supply chain management strategies are able to mitigate effectively time constraints, namely through the inventory in transit concept.