What Do Trade Agreements Really Do?

Dani Rodrik

Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2018, vol. 32, issue 2, 73-90

Abstract: Economists have a tendency to associate "free trade agreements" all too closely with "free trade." They may be unaware of some of the new (and often problematic) beyond-the-border features of current trade agreements. As trade agreements have evolved and gone beyond import tariffs and quotas into regulatory rules and harmonization—intellectual property, health and safety rules, labor standards, investment measures, investor-state dispute settlement procedures, and others—they have become harder to fit into received economic theory. It is possible that rather than neutralizing the protectionists, trade agreements may empower a different set of rent-seeking interests and politically well-connected firms—international banks, pharmaceutical companies, and multinational firms. Trade agreements could still result in freer, mutually beneficial trade, through exchange of market access. They could result in the global upgrading of regulations and standards, for labor, say, or the environment. But they could also produce purely redistributive outcomes under the guise of "freer trade." As trade agreements become less about tariffs and nontariff barriers at the border and more about domestic rules and regulations, economists might do well to worry more about the latter possibility.

JEL-codes: D72 F13 F14 F15 F23 J80 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
Note: DOI: 10.1257/jep.32.2.73
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (123)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/jep.32.2.73 (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrie ... JE1ZRS9mbSN0Tbi5tcJT (application/zip)

Related works:
Working Paper: What Do Trade Agreements Really Do? (2018)
Working Paper: What Do Trade Agreements Really Do? (2018)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:jecper:v:32:y:2018:i:2:p:73-90

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Perspectives is currently edited by Enrico Moretti

More articles in Journal of Economic Perspectives from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().