``Developing countries trying to push industrialisation on a sustainable basis are facing barriers in their export ventures as they fail to satisfy technical regulations considered mandatory by importing countries," says the study conducted by Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS) Centre for Trade Economics and Environment. ``However, economically sound nations have been more successful compared to developing and less developed countries in their efforts to penetrate the emerging markets more effectively. Many times diplomacy has taken a driver's seat in securing effective market access for these countries'', Secretary General of CUTS Pradeep S Mehta said.

Developing countries areexperiencing a negotiating fatigue, ``They are loaded with new negotiations when they are busy implementing the results of the Uruguay Round of Negotiations," said the research paper, `ratcheting market access."

The US ban on import of shrimps caught without the use of turtle excluder device (TED) from India using legislation, quantitative restrictions on certain woolen garments imposed by US, restrictions placed by Switzerland on participation of Indian made watches and excessive levying of service charges are few examples of non-tariff barriers, the paper said.

Indiscriminate use of anti-dumping measures have affected exports of many developing countries including India. There were 805 anti-dumping actions in operation as on June 30, 1995 and of this 305 were by the US, 178 by European Union (EU), 91 by Canada and 86 by Australia, a recent WTO report has said.

``Another problem faced by the developing countries is that they are not able to participate effectively in the proceedings of internationalbodies which set standards like Codex Alimentarius (world body which sets food standards) due to economic constraints and technical backwardness," co-author of the paper, Raghav Narsalay, said.

Protectionist agricultural policies followed by the US, European Union (EU)and Japan to protect interest of their farmers helped distort the picture in the area of prices. The penalty had to be paid by consumers, especially in developing country markets where a large number of consumers face fluctuations in their purchasing power.