In the recent years, there have been growing concerns among competition authorities that the reduction in governmental barriers to trade may not result in the expected increase in trade, because of the development of private anticompetitive practices. In the present article, the author focus on the link between tariffs and imports on an intermediate market when local firms can react to the level of tariffs by adapting the vertical structure of the industry through mergers and/or divestitures. They show that successful commercial negotiations with a partner country that has a lenient control of mergers can have adverse effects on the exports of firms toward this country.