Bulgaria ranks 64th among 125 countries in terms of trade related tariff barriers in 2007, a ranking compiled by the World Bank shows.

Bulgaria lags considerably behind the Central and Eastern European countries, while countries such as the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia share the 21st spot with Western European countries such as Italy, France, Germany, Austria.

Bulgaria was overtaken by countries such as the Republic of South Africa, Paraguay, Egypt, China, Ecuador and ranks higher that countries such as Chile, Cyprus, Uruguay and Thailand.

Romania occupies the unenviable 116th spot in the ranking.

The survey of the World Bank shows that in 2007 most developing countries continued to improve trade policies supporting greater integration.

Countries with lower barriers tended to have stronger, more consistent trade and export performance over the past decade, the survey shows.

The ranking shows that those countries that have reduced their trade barriers, and are doing well on trade facilitation and institutions, have also experienced sustained increases in their volume of trade.

While high-income countries still have the world’s lowest tariff barriers, many developing countries are converging rapidly. Georgia, Haiti, Armenia and Mauritius, are among the 10 countries having the lowest tariffs.

Developing countries showing large declines in import restrictions since the beginning of this decade include Egypt, which reduced its average MFN tariff from 47 to 17 percent; the Seychelles, dropping its average tariff from 28 to eight percent; India, reducing from 32 to 15 percent; and Mauritius, which reduced its average from 18 to just 3.5 percent.

The Indicators show the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa to be the developing regions with the highest average tariffs. About half of the countries among the 20 having the highest tariffs are in Africa.

The developing countries, especially the poorer ones, may benefit significantly from the trade liberalization, the report shows.