www.econstor.eu Multilateralism versus Regionalism!?
نویسندگان
چکیده
The well-known question whether regional trade agreements (RTAs) and the multilateral trading system (MTS) are strangers, friends, or foes (Bhagwati and Panagariya, 1996) has gained new importance with the widespread proliferation of RTAs in recent years. Based on an extensive data set which covers most of world trade over the past 60 years and about 240 regional trade agreements, we analyze the relationship between RTAs and the MTS by combining the gravity model framework with vector auto-regression analysis. Impulse-responsefunctions robustly suggest that multilateral trade liberalization responds in a signi cantly positive way to regional trade liberalization. We also nd robust evidence that RTA liberalization Granger-causes GATT/WTO liberalization. Thus, our results indicate that RTAs do not undermine the MTS but serve as building blocs to multilateral trade liberalization.
منابع مشابه
Regionalism versus Multilateralism
1687 Do the forces that regional integration arrangements set up encourage or discourage a trend toward globally freer trade? We don't know yet. Summary findings The literature on regionalism versus multilateralism is growing as economists and political scientists grapple with the question of whether regional integration arrangements are good or bad for the multilateral system. Are regional int...
متن کامل"Singapore’s RTA Strategy"
Singapore is not the only country embracing regionalism. Regionalism has already started to gain favor in the world, taking the place of multilateralism, which is often seen as merely a version of the WTO and is therefore thwarted by an abundance of negative baggage. But Singapore, a small state, often feels the need for more room to explore bilateral FTAs, as its relationship with larger econo...
متن کاملTrading Blocs and Multilateralism in the World Economy
The resurgence of continental trading blocs throughout the 1980s will influence the nature and evolution of the world economy in the 1990s and beyond. In this paper, we argue that classical economic analysis of trading blocs is inconclusive, and regionalism cannot be understood in economic terms alone. We focus on an examination of the relationship that exists between trading bloc formation and...
متن کاملExplaining Rising Regionalism and Failing Multilateralism: Consensus Decision-making and Expanding WTO membership
The beleaguered progress of the Doha Development Agenda of the WTO presents something of a puzzle for economic theory: if multilateralism is an effective forum for liberalisation (as it has been in the past), then why have the current round of talks faltered amid the proliferation of preferential trade negotiations? Several authors have argued that the consensus decision-making and single-under...
متن کاملCEP Discussion Paper No 961 December 2009 Regional Trade Agreements Caroline Freund and Emanuel Ornelas
This paper reviews the theoretical and the empirical literature on regionalism. The formation of regional trade agreements has been, by far, the most popular form of reciprocal trade liberalization in the last fifteen years. The discriminatory character of these agreements has raised three main concerns: that trade diversion would be rampant, because special interest groups would induce governm...
متن کامل