The Purpose of Trade Agreements

Gene Grossman

No 11151, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: This paper reviews the literature on governments' motivations for negotiating and joining international trade agreements. I discuss both normative explanations for trade agreements and explanations based on political-economy concerns. Most of the paper focuses on the purpose of multilateral agreements, but I do discuss briefly the reasons we might see governments forming preferential or regional trade agreements that exclude some countries.

Keywords: Trade agreements; Trade pacts; International cooperation; Multilateralism; Regionalism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F13 F53 K33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (33)

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Working Paper: The Purpose of Trade Agreements (2016)
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