Does Regionalism Affect Trade Liberalization Towards Non-Members?

Antoni Estevadeordal, Caroline Freund () and Emanuel Ornelas

CEP Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

Abstract: We examine the effect of regionalism on unilateral trade liberalization using industry-level data on applied MFN tariffs and bilateral preferences for ten Latin American countries from 1990 to 2001. We find that preferential tariff reduction in a given sector leads to a reduction in the external (MFN) tariff in that sector. External liberalization is greater if preferences are granted to important suppliers. However, these "complementarity effects" of preferential liberalization on external liberalization do not arise in customs unions. Overall, our results suggest that concerns about a negative effect of preferential liberalization on external trade liberalization are unfounded.

Keywords: regionalism; external tariffs; trade liberalization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F13 F15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (149)

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Journal Article: Does Regionalism Affect Trade Liberalization Toward Nonmembers? (2008)
Working Paper: Does regionalism affect trade liberalization towards non-members? (2008)
Working Paper: Does regionalism affect trade liberalization toward non-members ? (2008)
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