Trade Potential in Arab Nations: The Case of the GCC and PAFTA

Dimitrios Dadakas

Review of Middle East Economics and Finance, 2021, vol. 17, issue 3, 139-174

Abstract: We examine trade flows for Arab nations concentrating on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Pan-Arab Free Trade Area (PAFTA) areas, to identify opportunities to enhance intra-Arab trade and facilitate regional integration. We employ panel data for the years 2003–2017 and a structural gravity model together with an “aggregate” trade potential measure that treats the GCC and PAFTA areas as single countries. Results suggest that, by 2015, intra-area trade had reached maximum capacity for both blocs. Potential to trade also reached capacity with many of the largest Free Trade Areas around the world, however, opportunities for trade expansion that still exist with the MERCOSUR and ASEAN, as well as many distinct destinations, can assist in strategic planning to enhance integration efforts.

Keywords: GCC; PAFTA; free trade agreements; trade potential; structural gravity; F1; C33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1515/rmeef-2020-0038 (text/html)
For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.

Related works:
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:bpj:rmeecf:v:17:y:2021:i:3:p:139-174:n:4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/rmeef/html

DOI: 10.1515/rmeef-2020-0038

Access Statistics for this article

Review of Middle East Economics and Finance is currently edited by Ghassan Dibeh

More articles in Review of Middle East Economics and Finance from De Gruyter
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().