Preferential trade agreements, externalities, and domestic policy

The Domestic Politics of Preferential Trade Agreements in Hard Times

We present a theory of why some countries negotiate trade agreements during economic downturns. We argue that political leaders can gain from such agreements because of the signals they send to their publics. Publics are less likely to blame leaders for bad economic conditions when they have implemented sound economic policies, such as signing and implementing agreements designed to liberalize ...

Preferential Trade Agreements

Small Countries and Preferential Trade Agreements

This paper examines the welfare implications of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) from the perspective of small countries in the context of a multi-country, general equilibrium model. We calibrate our model to represent one relatively small country and two symmetric big countries. We consider two cases. In one case, the small country is an “innocent bystander,” that is, it is left out of a P...

Tariff Adjustments in Preferential Trade Agreements

In this paper we examine how preferential trade liberalization affects the terms of trade, external tariffs and welfare of the integrating countries and the rest of the world. Our analysis is based on a three-country, three-good, general equilibrium model with symmetric customs union (CU) members. The model generalizes previous work by considering more general consumer preferences and productio...

Preferential Trade Agreements in Asia and the Pacific 157 Preferential Trade Agreements in Asia and the Pacific

Global multilateral trading arrangements offer the best prospect for reducing barriers to trade and achieving the greatest gains from trade liberalization. Preferential trade agreements (PTAs) are a second-best means of achieving trade liberalization in a context where multilateral negotiations proceed slowly. There is considerable variation in the efforts undertaken by PTAs in different parts ...