This thesis explores the impact that two types of non-conventional barriers - non-tariff measures (NTMs) and cultural traits - have on trade. The first essay deals with the asymmetric impact that NTMs can have on trading partners and provides estimates of the bilateral effects of NTMs (in terms of ad valorem equivalents) across exporter-importer pairs. The second essay finds support that, at the global level, the negative impact of NTMs on trade is greater with respect to final goods (“NTM escalation”), but that there is a degree of NTM de-escalation as one moves from primary goods to intermediate goods. The third essay investigates what role, if any, that the cultural traits of trust propensity and agreeableness might have on international trade and shows that their impact is limited when considered in isolation, but that trust propensity has a strong and positive effect on trade when it is interacted with distance.