Did the least developed countries benefit from duty-free quota-free access to the Japanese market?

Tadashi Ito and Takahide Aoyagi

Japan and the World Economy, 2019, vol. 49, issue C, 32-39

Abstract: Through the WTO’s Doha round initiatives, countries classified as least developed countries (LDCs) were granted duty-free quota-free (DFQF) access to the Japanese market. This study examines the impact of that access and finds that, in general, it benefited the LDCs. The construction of concordance tables for Japan's 9-digit tariff line codes over 19 years enables analyses at the tariff line level, which overcomes a possible aggregation bias. The exogenous nature of DFQF access mitigates the endogeneity problem. The triple difference estimator shows that in general the LDCs benefited from DFQF access to the Japanese market. Tariff lines which were granted zero tariffs and substantial preference margins over other countries resulted in successful imports into the Japanese market.

Keywords: LDCs; Japan; Tariff liberalisation; Duty-free quota-free access; WTO Doha Round (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F13 F14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:japwor:v:49:y:2019:i:c:p:32-39

DOI: 10.1016/j.japwor.2018.09.002

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